Celtic gain narrow advantage over Zenit with Callum McGregor’s late goal

Keeping a clean sheet may please Brendan Rodgers as much as taking a slender advantage to St Petersburg. Celtic’s defence, after all, has been subject to derision and occasional torture by top-level European opposition.

Zenit are not in such an illustrious class but this still felt like a significant result for Rodgers. It was Celtic’s first non-qualifying-round win at home in Europe since 2014. A makeshift home team were superior to Zenit before the moments that won the match, fuelled by the Chelsea loanee Charly Musonda. If those at Stamford Bridge are well versed in the youngster’s talents, this was Musonda marking his arrival at Celtic after a low-key start.

There appeared little danger to Zenit when Musonda, who had arrived as a late substitute, collected the ball in midfield. The 21-year-old danced forward and produced a sharp pass to Olivier Ntcham. As Ntcham found Moussa Dembélé, Musonda was on hand to receive the ball again. He picked out Callum McGregor with a lofted pass. McGregor did the rest and Celtic Park partied in a manner typical on Champions League evenings.

Rodgers will take his players to Russia with a level of hope even he perhaps thought unlikely before kick-off. A similar level of defensive obduracy and attacking patience as delivered here will give Celtic a strong chance.

“It was a very good victory for us,” said Rodgers. “I thought the performance was outstanding. We played with great maturity and capped it off with a fantastic goal. That was no more than we deserved.

“Right the way through the team they were outstanding and with a lot of young players. It will be a tough game over there but we have given ourselves a great opportunity after tonight.”

That Celtic dropped into the Europa League from a Champions League group which included Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain was rightly heralded as acceptable. Nonetheless, there were some heavy wounds inflicted before Christmas, including a lame home defeat by Anderlecht which rounded off the section.

Rodgers had been effusive in his pre-match praise of Zenit. The motivation for that seemed twofold, Celtic having been well short of their best in recent times and the team currently second in the Russian league retaining spending power far in excess of the Scottish champions. Celtic hope, boosted by a strong opening here, resonated mainly in Zenit’s current position of being involved in a winter break.

Ntcham should have emphasised the hosts’ early superiority but instead slammed wide. Celtic’s support – which, impressively, packed this arena for a last-32 tie – had been given suitable incentive that an inauspicious recent home European run could be brought to an end.

Zenit’s first attack, after 14 minutes, almost produced tangible reward. A menacing low cross from Domenico Criscito found Anton Zabolotny. Dorus de Vries produced a stunning save to deny the forward before Kieran Tierney completed the rescue operation.

That foray aside, Zenit played the opening half in a style befitting a team lacking competitive action. McGregor was the architect of a glaring Celtic chance, his ball across the face of goal somehow managing to elude all team-mates. Dembélé was the next Celtic player to bear down on the Zenit goal but Emanuel Mammana made an outstanding tackle to deny the Frenchman.

Fascination at the start of the second period surrounded whether Zenit had any interest in offering more in attack and whether Celtic could add the goal their overall play had hitherto merited.

Zenit successfully if briefly dulled Celtic’s impetus, apart from a James Forrest shot that drew a fine block from Mammana. Eboue Kouassi, a surprising choice in the Celtic midfield, tried to reinvigorate his team with a long-range attempt which Andrey Lunev batted away unconvincingly.

With half an hour to play Zenit appeared perfectly content to settle for scoreless parity. Rodgers’ quest to return pressure to the Zenit defence during the closing stages meant the replacing of Kouassi with Musonda. The move was to prove crucial.