Rodgers confident Celts can progress
BRENDAN Rodgers believes Celtic have given themselves an excellent chance of progressing to the last 16 of the Europa League with their 1-0 win over Zenit St Petersburg at Park-head last night.
A Callum McGregor goal with 12 minutes remaining gave the Scottish champions a richly deserved triumph over their outclassed Russian opponents at a packed Celtic Park.
Rodgers knows his side, who dominated Roberto Mancini’s team from kickoff and should have won by more goals, face a tough task protecting their lead in the away leg next Thursday.
However, the level of performance against Zenit has given the Northern Irishman confidence and he is hopeful that Celtic can score in the Krestovsky Stadium and go through.
“We have given ourselves the advantage,” said Rodgers. “Like in all of these ties, if you can keep a clean sheet it’s impor- tant. The stability the team had, the concentration, they organised themselves very well in the game, that’s important going into the second leg.
“We know we can score goals. Zenit probably have to come out and chase the game now which could give us more space and opportunities to play and score. Like tonight, it will be another tough game, but we have given ourselves a great opportunity.”
Mancini, the Zenit manager, suggested that not playing a competitive fixture in over two months due to the winter break had resulted in his team being below-par.
“We knew it would be a difficult game after a month off for the winter break,” said Mancini.
“Celtic are a good team and we made mistakes. We have another 90 minutes next week, we can change things, play better and improve up front. We didn’t cause Celtic enough problems tonight.”