2018-02-15: Celtic 1-0 Zenit St Petersburg, UEFA Cup

Match Pictures| Matches: 2017 – 2018 | 2017-18 Pictures

Trivia

• Round of 32, 1st leg
• First ever meeting between the two sides.
• Celtic fans expressed their dissatisfaction on social media after learning the cost for season ticket holders to attend the Europa League match with Zenit St Petersburg. Adults will have to pay £35 for the first leg encounter, with concessions having to cough up £22 and under-13s £18. Having been made to pay high prices for the club’s Champions League games, many fans were hoping the cost would come down.
• McGregor the hero, but the goal was terrific with Masonda & Dembele linking up to set up McGregor.
• Lots of injuries into this game (Gordon, Boyata, Rogic, Roberts etc), andincredibly morale was low as the team had been poorin recent months (relatively). Zenitwere rested and well prepared but Celtic fully controlled the game. Incredible! Should have won by far more.
• Celtic had the highest possessionratio ofany team in this round.

• Zenit St Petersburg fined £26,500 by UEFA for their fans’ misbehaviour in Spain in Dec. The Russian side were charged by European football’s governing body after unruly scenes during their Europa League clash at Real Sociedad. And
• UEFA have ordered them to also repay the San Sebastian club for the damage to their Anoeta Stadium. Zenit were fined for: “Acts of damages; Setting off of fireworks; Throwing of objects and Lack of order inside the stadium”. UEFA had already sanctioned Roberto Mancini’s club with a partial closure of their Krestovsky Stadium for the return leg with the Hoops next month following the display of a banner calling war criminal Ratko Mladic a “hero” during their group stage clash with Macedonian side FK Vardar.
  
  
• Zenit's solitary experience of Scottish opposition came on arguably the greatest night in the St Petersburg club's history – when they defeated Rangers 2-0 in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup final in Manchester.
  
• Brendan Rodgers was on the losing side when his Liverpool team went out to Zenit in the 2012/13 round of 32.
• When Celtic last appeared in the UEFA Europa League round of 32, the coach of the side that beat them, Internazionale, was current Zenit boss Roberto Mancini.
• Alex McLeish, EBT & ex-Hun manager, announced as Scotland manager. Very contentious, and shows up SFAfor what it is. Many claiming corruption, boys club etc in the light of his EBTs which was cheating and shouldhavecut him out the running.

Review

(El Salto of kDS)
Must admit I was bricking it before this game, I thought it could have been another bad night, but how wrong I was

A terrific performance from Celtic both as a team and individually, there were no failures

Three goals wouldn't have flattered us, and bad luck prevented us from putting the tie to bed

Think we need to score over there to make things easier, but on this evidence we can

Fans were great and the atmosphere was superb

(fatboab of KDS)
Fine performance from Celtic tonight, both players and management. We may have been fortunate to catch Zenit after their winter shutdown, but we played with our heads as well as our hearts tonight. Good performances all round, but Ntcham and Dembele take us to another level. Kouassi will get there too in time, and Mousondas contribution will help him settle .Defensively we looked a bit scared at times, but we made few, if any errors and didn’t allow them a single attempt at goal other than the daft stramash that followed James Forrest’s chesty and fall over. Some great football played in the build up to our goal, although I struggled to see who scored it
Good referee too, let the game flow and made all the correct decisions.
Rodgers is maybe realising that a more canny set up is not a bad thing.
Next week will be tough, but if we can score, I think we’ll go through.

Teams

Celtic

Goals

• McGregor (78' minutes)

Zenit St Petersburg

Substitutes

• 1Lodygin
• 3Terentjev
• 7Poloz
• 8Kranevitter
• 11Driussi
• 18Zhirkov
• 60Ivanovic

Articles

• Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

• Match Pictures

Forum

• Pre-match http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11058540/
• Match http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11059222/
• Post Match http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11059233/8/?x=50

MOTM

• Voting Thread http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11059234/
• Result Thread
• Winner –

Stats

CelticAway Team
Zenit St Petersburg

Possession
Home59%
Away41%

Shots
Home11
Away5

Shots on Target
Home3
Away2

Corners
Home8
Away3

Fouls
Home18
Away13

Articles

Celtic 1-0 Zenit: McGregor goal gives Hoops precious first leg lead
Published: 22:10 Thursday 15 February 2018 Stephen Halliday
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/celtic/celtic-1-0-zenit-mcgregor-goal-gives-hoops-precious-first-leg-lead-1-4689916

Rodgers’ team selection for the home leg, which saw him name top scorer Scott Sinclair among the substitutes, had hinted at a more circumspect approach as defensive midfielder Eboue Kouassi was handed only his seventh starting appearance for Celtic.

But that quickly proved to be an illusory perception as the home side adopted an aggressive and purposeful strategy which really should have seen them claim a lead before half-time.
With McGregor operating just behind central striker Moussa Dembele, while James Forrest and Kieran Tierney provided excellent attacking outlets down the flanks, Celtic maintained a high tempo as they looked to test Zenit’s match sharpness in what was the Russian side’s first competitive fixture since their winter break.
The foraging Tierney, already making his 48th appearance of the season for club and country, was the first to threaten as the left-back saw his shot from a tight angle blocked.
Rodgers could only have been gratified by the amount of openings his team created in the opening 45 minutes. He would have been equally frustrated at their inability to convert even one of them.

Olivier Ntcham dragged a shot wide of Andrei Lunev’s right hand post after being played in by Dembele, then McGregor ought to have done better than see a tame effort held by the Zenit ‘keeper after bright set-up play from Kouassi.
Zenit carried only an occasional menace on the counter-attack, such as the one they launched in the 14th minute when Forrest was guilty of conceding possession cheaply.
It required a smart and instinctive save from Dorus de Vries to keep out Anton Zabolotny’s close range shot from Domenico Criscito’s low cross from the left.
McGregor was at the heart of much of Celtic’s best work but he lacked the finishing touch again when, after a cross from Ntcham broke kindly into his path, he delayed his shot a fraction of a second too long and saw it deflected wide by Miha Mevlja.

The combination of Forrest and McGregor wrong-footed the Zenit defence more than once and there were howls of agony around Celtic Park when one slick move between the pair ended with the ball fizzing across the face of the six-yard box with Dembele too slow to react to the opportunity.
The French striker had started the game brightly but he betrayed a lack of sharpness again when he couldn’t sort his feet out quickly enough to accept what would have been a tap-in from a Tierney cutback.
Zenit were happy to break up play whenever they could in a bid to disrupt Celtic’s rhythm and Daler Kuzyaev was perhaps fortunate not to be sent off when, just a couple of minutes after being booked for dissent, he cynically fouled McGregor.
The visitors managed to claim an improved share of possession at the start of the second half and their highly-regarded striker Aleksandr Kokorin, who made little impact before the break, headed a decent chance from a Criscito corner just wide.
But Celtic were soon imposing themselves on Zenit again, a brilliant crossfield pass from Tierney allowing Kouassi to thread the ball into the penalty area where Lunev had to race from his line to save at McGregor’s feet.

Ntcham’s energy and ball-winning instincts were central to Celtic’s dominance in midfield but he sailed close to the wind with a late and dangerous challenge on Aleksandr Erokhin which earned him a booking.
Kouassi, who forced an unconvincing save from Lunev with a rasping long range effort, had impressed for Celtic but he made way in the closing stages for the more creative presence of on-loan Chelsea attacking midfielder Charly Musonda.
It proved to be an inspired substitution from Rodgers as, just five minutes after entering the fray, Musonda played a key role in Celtic’s excellent breakthrough goal.
The Belgian playmaker began the move on the left by cleverly finding Ntcham who shuttled the ball on to Dembele on the edge of the penalty area. The striker held it up before finding Musonda who lofted an inventive angled pass across the box to McGregor who controlled it with his chest and drove a right foot shot high beyond Lunev.
It was another valuable contribution from one of Celtic’s least heralded players as it brought an end to a sequence of three consecutive home defeats in Europe for Rodgers’ squad and allows them to travel to St Petersburg in buoyant mood.
Celtic: De Vries, Lustig, Ajer, Simunovic, Tierney; Brown, Ntcham; Forrest, McGregor, Kouassi (Musonda 73); Dembele (Edouard 84). Subs not used: Bain, Hendry, Sinclair, Rogic, Miller.
Zenit: Lunev, Mevlja, Mammana, Criscito, Smolnikov; Erokhin, Kuzyaev (Kranevitter 62), Paredes; Rigoni (Driussi 62), Kokorin, Zabolotny. Subs not used: Lodygin, Terentyev, Poloz, Zhirkov, Ivanovic.
Referee: D.Skomina (Slovenia)

BBC
By Martin Dowden
BBC Scotland at Celtic Park

Callum McGregor's second-half strike delivered a deserved victory for Celtic in the first leg of their Europa League last-32 tie with Zenit St Petersburg.
The home side dominated play but were ruing a series of missed opportunities until the midfielder's decisive finish.
Substitute Charly Musonda played a big role, setting up the chance, which McGregor lashed high into the net.

The victory was Celtic's first win at home in 12 European matches outside the qualifying phase.

• Great chance to progress – Celtic boss

This was a significant test for the Scottish champions after a fairly punishing Champions League group stage, which saw them concede 18 goals as they finished behind Paris St-Germain and Bayern Munich.
Manager Brendan Rodgers acknowledged their status as underdogs in this tie, yet Celtic finished the first leg full of belief they can now go further in Europe.
Rodgers made some critical selection decisions, changing from his normal system and dropping Scott Sinclair for McGregor, with Eboue Kouassi also starting.
Those calls seemed inspired from the off, with Kieran Tierney, McGregor and Moussa Dembele immediately looking sharp and threatening.
The home side came close to an early lead when Dembele capitalised on a defensive error to play in Olivier Ntcham. The Frenchman clipped towards goal, but the ball crept agonisingly wide.
Celtic Park responded. It was more like European nights of the past as the crowd roared their approval at a performance bursting with assertiveness and ambition.
Another defensive lapse by the Russians allowed Kouassi to feed McGregor, who shot from the edge of the box, but his effort was straight at Andrei Lunev in goal.
The visitors had shown nothing but nerves and rustiness to that point – playing their first game after a lengthy winter break – but they still came very close to scoring the opening goal.
Celtic goalkeeper Dorus de Vries did well to block Anton Zabolotny's close-range effort. Yet de Vries had little else to do in the match.
That scare did little to dampen Celtic's approach. They piled forward but crucially never looked overexposed to a counter-attack. This was a mature and effective display.
Everything was executed at pace, meaning there was never any respite for the Russian side, who appeared subdued following their extended break.
McGregor was prominent in the best of Celtic's work, linking superbly and racing from deep into spaces beyond Dembele. On one occasion, that dynamism carried him to the touchline behind the defence. He flashed the ball across the six-yard line, but neither Dembele nor Tierney could apply the finishing touch.
Celtic were dominant, looking bright and vibrant, and all their play lacked was a goal. Zenit were fortunate not to lose Daler Kuzyayev after he dragged McGregor to the ground soon after being booked, with the Russians often willing to commit a foul to halt Celtic's progress.
In the second half, Zenit sat deep trying to stifle the home side's threat. The pressure remained, but Celtic failed to truly test Lunev's goal as the clock ticked on.
Zenit manager Roberto Mancini looked increasingly happy to leave with a 0-0 scoreline. Rodgers, on the other hand, knew he needed a goal after his team had played so impressively, and he sent on Musonda in search of a winner.
The intervention worked. Musonda took Dembele's ball on the run and clipped it perfectly across the goal to McGregor, who took a touch before volleying home emphatically to send Celtic Park wild.
Musonda proved the key with a moment of quality but McGregor's finish and performance throughout were magnificent and justly rewarded.