THE Pundits

JOHN HARTSON

ANY team can lose but it was the manner of it. If you have five or six players switching off you’re going to be beaten.

Celtic made a good Zenit side look average last week but the opposite was true in this game. The players as a team didn’t manage the game and they need to take responsibility for that. It was poor and they never started playing until they went three goals down.

Jozo Simunovic loses Branislav Ivanovic at the first and to give a player of his quality a free header is criminal. He needs to hold his hands up for that mistake as does Dorus de Vries for the second. Zenit should have been down to 10 men as Daler Kuzyaev should’ve had a second yellow card for a late challenge after the half-time whistle on Eboue Kouassi.

The first half from Celtic wasn’t good enough. It was a poor night and a lot of decisions went against them but there can be no excuses. It’s disappointing as basically a well below par performance. The players let themselves down.

ALAN STUBBS

WHEN you take the two games into account, Celtic have gone from perfect to poor. Defensive problems have come back to haunt them and the facts have been laid bare

It’s a split-second’s loss of concentration from Simunovic which allowed Ivanovic a free header at the first goal and the second was a really poor one to concede. I don’t think there can be any argument or excuses from de Vries. There may have been some movement on the ball but it was a shot that should have been saved.

The referee was pernickety and he was very quick to penalise Celtic whenever a Zenit player went down and not so quick when the opposite was the case.

But it just wasn’t good enough from Celtic. It was the least effective I have seen them as an attacking force.

There was a lack of threat and they were always chasing the game, they weren’t brave enough to go and win it. They didn’t lay a glove on Zenit.

PAT BONNER

IN European football you don’t allow a player of Ivanovic’s quality to get a free header in the middle of the box, eight yards out.

It was a bad opening goal for Celtic to lose, shocking defending.

The second was worse, Kuzyaev hit it early and there may have been movement on the ball but it’s down the middle of the goal.

You have to put it down to a mistake from the goalkeeper and it was a bit of a disaster at that stage in the game.

Zenit aren’t a brilliant team by any means and were there to be taken on. But Celtic just lacked something. The diamond formation in midfield didn’t work as they didn’t get on the ball enough to pass it. They created a host of corners in the first leg but won their first after almost an hour in this game and that tells its own story.

Celtic weren’t anywhere near the level they were at in the first leg against a Zenit side who aren’t Champions League level. They didn’t bring their creative talents to the game and the third goal put the tie beyond them.