5 THINGS WE LEARNED LAST NIGHT

1 BRENDAN RODGERS (left) has to find a commanding centre-half with experience if Celtic are to continue to progress in Europe. Playing European football beyond Christmas was the minimum target at the start of the season. That has been achieved, but the shaky rearguard needs upgrading if Celtic want to advance further. 2 ANOTHER match to forget between the sticks for Dorus de Vries at Celtic. The Dutch keeper conceded seven goals at the Nou Camp and was beaten by Kilmarnock striker Souleymane Coulibaly from the halfway line last season. The second goal Zenit scored was a blunder. The flatfooted De Vries was caught out by Daler Kuzyaev. The 25-yard strike was powerful but not precise. It should have been a routine save. 3 CELTIC had plenty of possession but no penetration in Russia. The visitors had two-thirds of the ball throughout but had to wait until the 66th minute to muster a shot on target. Zenit pinned back Celtic’s wing-backs, forced Rodgers’ men to play the game in a congested midfield and the Russians contained them easily. Scott Brown, Olivier Ntcham and Eboue Kouassi worked hard, but their passing was nowhere near incisive enough. 4 THERE were concerns about the form and fitness of Mikael Lustig before the second leg as he missed Sunday’s game through a niggling Achilles injury. The Swede was handed an early reprieve by Aleksandr Kokorin when firing straight at De Vries after Lustig gave the ball away cheaply and failed to intercept the through ball. He was not so lucky on 61 minutes when he switched off at the far post. Kokorin cashed in to score the killer third. 5 THE last time Branislav Ivanovic played a Europa League knockout match he scored the lastminute winner in the 2013 final. Ivanovic is a big-game player. He sealed a 2-1 win for Chelsea in the final against Benfica five years ago and he pounced to score the crucial opener for Zenit.