For Rodgers in Europe
● January move likely for German cap ● He’d be ineligible for Zenit Europa tie ● Russian side will be on winter break
made when I was there, he was short with a backpass and Hulk scored. It meant we needed four but we got to three. We had half an hour to get another one. We hit the post, everything, but we just couldn’t get another one. It finished up three each and we went out on away goals.”
Zenit went second in the Russian Premier League table after drawing 0-0 away to Akhmat Grozny last night, their final fixture before their domestic season closes down for the winter. It does not re-open until March, meaning Zenit will have no recent competitive action under their belts when they play Celtic.
“It’s a little bit like the challenges we face at the start of a season, coming straight into the qualifiers when some of the teams we play are already in their domestic season,” observed Rodgers. “Naturally, it’s difficult. Zenit will be back in training, I suppose, some time in January, trying to get ready for the tie against us.
“They will have a breather, a break and they will have winter training somewhere. Of course, if you are in rhythm, in mid-season, it is better but they will see it as something they just have to get over. Whoever we were going to get it was going to be tough.
“Thankfully for us, this tie is still a bit of time away so it gives us a period to hopefully be a better team when we get around to playing them.” BT Sport 1, 7:15pm Chelsea look to bounce back from their defeat by West Ham in the Premier League. Eurosport 1, 12:45pm and 6:45pm Latest from the Emirates Arena, Glasgow.
Celtic will make a move to sign German central defender Marvin Compper next month but he will not be eligible to play in their Europa League round of 32 tie against Zenit St Petersburg.
It is understood the Scottish champions have firmly identified RB Leipzig’s Compper as their leading target to add greater depth in a position of the team which has lacked cover this season.
The 32-year-old, who won a solitary cap for Germany back in2008,has18monthsremaining on his contract with Leipzig but has fallen out of favour at the Bundesliga club this season.
His only European appearance for the club in the current campaign came as a late substitute in their home defeat against Besiktas in the Champions League last week. As Leipzig joined Celtic in dropping into the Europa League, it means Compper would not be able to play for Brendan Rodgers’ side in the tournament.
But that is unlikely to prevent Rodgers pursuing his interest in the former Borussia Monchengladbach, Hoffenheim and Fiorentina player.
Yesterday’s Europa League draw paired Celtic with a Zenit side now managed by former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini and who were the top scorers in the group stage of the tournament.
As the unseeded side, Celtic will be at home in the first leg on 15 February before travelling to Russia for the return fixture seven days later.
The two matches fall in the midst of a three-month winter break in domestic Russian football which started for Zenit last night following their 0-0 draw away at Akhmat Grozny. Rodgers likened the situation to the one Celtic faced at the start of the season when they went straight into Champions League qualifying ties without having played any league matches.
“It doesn’t make it the easiest,” the Celtic manager said. “We experience that a different way ourselves when we play in the Champions League qualifiers.
“Some of the teams are in season and we are just coming back and we are playing very important games, in our pre-season. So I suppose they have it the other way.”
Celtic will play in a partiallyclosed Krestovsky Stadium in St Petersburg after Zenit were last week found guilty of “racist behaviour” by Uefa after a banner praising former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic was displayed during their Europa League match against Macedonian side Vardar last month.
The day before that game, Mladic was sentenced to life in prison by a United Nations war crimes tribunal for his part in ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian conflict.
Uefa has also opened up disciplinary proceedings against Zenit following the Europa League group stage match againstrealsociedadinspain on 7 December, which was won 3-1 by the visitors.
The Russian club were charged with acts of damage, setting off of a firework, throwing of objects and lack of order inside the stadium. The case will be heard by Uefa’s disciplinary body on 22 February.
Zenit supporters have attracted notoriety in the past, once even publishing a manifesto which called on their club not to sign any non-white or gay players.
Rodgers was in charge of Liverpool when they played Zenit in the last 32 of the Europa League five seasons ago – a tie his team lost on away goals – and he recalls being warned about the potential for racist abuse of his players before they travelled to St Petersburg.
“I have to say it was something I was made very aware of before the game we played out there because of the reputation they had within the stadium,” said Rodgers. “I was aware of that side of it. But I have to say, in our game and our travel there, we didn’t experience anything of that. It was a real intense game. Liverpool had a lot of supporters there, Zenit as well, but we had no issues with it whatsoever. There was huge policing there, but we had no issues with it.
“There is no place for racism. Whether it’s football or society, there is no call for it. In terms of speaking to our players about it before this tie, we’ll think about that nearer the time.”