The Cypriot champions continued their dream run by withstanding a furious onslaught from the home side to collect the point they needed to secure their passage into the last 16 with a game to spare.
APOEL's Serbian coach Ivan Jovanovic hailed his team's historic achievement.
"This is a fantastic result for our team. Of course, we're a small team compared to many European giants but we have a big heart," he told reporters.
"We have good players who try hard every single game and they also have a great desire to achieve something really important. I think these factors have been the key to our success on the pitch."
The match was interrupted again shortly after the interval for the same reason and Brych decided to continue only after Zenit's Italian coach Luciano Spalletti and midfielder Roman Shirokov appealed to the fans to stop their fireworks.
"The ref had told us that if this was to happen again he would cancel the game and we would get a technical 3-0 defeat," Shirokov told Russian television NTV Plus.
"I tried to explain that to the fans but my pleas were falling on deaf ears. They are real idiots, what else can you say?" added the outspoken Russia international, who boldly predicted victory for his team and also dismissed APOEL as nothing more than pretenders before the match.
"As for the game, APOEL defended really well. They were very compact at the back. We tried to break their defence with quick passes but the [soggy] pitch didn't help us."
