Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Knuckle ball’ to blame says Celt
DORUS de Vries claims he was fooled by a “knuckle ball” in Celtic’s 3-0 defeat at Zenit St Petersburg, which saw them crash out of the Europa League.
The Hoops’ deserved 1-0 lead from the first leg of the last-32 clash at Parkhead last week was cancelled out after only eight minutes.
Returning defender Branislav Ivanovic, celebrating his 34th birthday, put Zenit in front with a header from a corner.
De Vries seemed to lose the flight of Daler Kuzyaev’s long-range drive in the 27th minute which turned the tie in the favour of the home side, who scored a third through striker Aleksandr Kokorin.
Goalkeeper De Vries said: “I have seen it back and it is called a knuckle ball.
“There is no spin on the ball and a couple of those guys have the ability to do that.
“It moves to my right which is why I am stepping to my right but it doesn’t keep on the original path, a couple of yards before that it shifts to the left and those are so difficult for a goalkeeper to adjust to.
“U n f o r t u n a t e l y, it happened last night which is really disappointing because you are hoping you can get a full hand on it.
“If the knuckle ball stays in the direction you are moving you can adjust but once it goes the opposite way there i s almost no chance.
“It was disappointing. We gave ourselves a good chance to progress in the first leg and in the end we didn’t.”
Zenit boss Roberto Mancini was pleased by his side’s improvement since l a s t w e e k ’s d e f e a t in Glasgow.
He said: “We deserved to win. We played a very good game. Celtic are a strong team but we played very, very well.
“C e l t i c ’s tempo in Glasgow was very difficult for us.”