Gent's hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time in their history have been boosted as Laurent Depoitre's header has given them a 1-0 lead over Zenit St Petersburg at half time.

The home side's towering Serbian centre-back Stefan Mitrovic sent a header from a corner over the top of goal inside the opening five minutes.

The hosts then had a goal ruled out for offside as they continued to put their unbeaten opponents under sustained pressure.

Zenit didn't threaten until 12 minutes, but could have taken the lead when Danny collected Alexander Anyukov's pass and squared for Artem Dzyuba, only for the Russian striker to fail to connect with the ball.

However, Gent broke the deadlock on 18 minutes when Depoitre gave Yuri Lodigin no chance with a powerful header from six yards out.

Lodigin then pulled off a huge one-on-one save and somehow kept out Nana Asare's close-range effort just before half time to keep his team in the game.