Zenit boss Mancini rates Rodgers so highly he even tried to hire him

so unfortunate not to win the Premier League with them in 2014 – and then later he was gone. That told me football can be a strange game sometimes.

“But Brendan has huge qualities and that’s one of the reasons why it will be very tough for us in Scotland this week. Celtic are a great team with some really good players and they have a top manager who I know all about.

“To play at Celtic Park will be difficult for us because those supporters are incredible. The crowd will be fantastic for the first match but for us it’s a great place to play football.”

With the Russian league in shutdown Zenit have only had friendly matches to prepare for the vital Europa League tie.

They had winter training in Dubai before heading to Antalya, where they’ve played Red Star Belgrade, Slovan Bratislava and on Saturday, Maribor.

In their final warm-up they beat the Slovenians 3-1 and were hugely impressive for 45 minutes.

But after Mancini made changes to his line-up in the second half they suffered as a result.

If not for keeper Yuri Lodygin, who saved two penalties in the last few minutes, Maribor could have earned a draw.

But Mancini is convinced the game was ideal for Zenit before facing Celtic in midweek.

He said: “It was a good win for us and remember Maribor are a team who were recently in the Champions League.

“They’re a strong side. It was

SCOTT McDERMOTT