Match Reports

Zenit St Petersburg 3 Celtic 0

|
Image for Zenit St Petersburg 3 Celtic 0

Celtic are out of Europe following a 3-0 defeat to Zenit St Petersburg in their Europa League Round of 32 second-leg at the Krestovsky Stadium.

Former Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic levelled the tie overall with an early header before Daler Kuzyaev had the home side in front ahead of the interval.

Aleksandr Kokorin then added a decisive third goal with just over an hour of the contest played – and that was to prove sufficient.

The Hoops remained unchanged from the first-leg in which Callum McGregor’s late strike had earned them a narrow advantage.

However, that was immediately cancelled out when the unmarked Ivanovic headed in Leanardo Parades’ seventh-minute corner.

That lead was doubled close to the half-hour as Kuzyaev moved inside and his shot deceived goalkeeper Dorus De Vries on its way into the net.

The visitors were also finding their opponents difficult to break down at the other end, and manager Brendan Rodgers introduced Tom Rogic at the interval; although his early second-half attempt failed to test keeper Andrei Lunev.

Olivier Ntcham also sliced wide before Kristoffer Ajer headed behind at a corner; until Kokorin was on the end of Ivanovic’s delivery and increased the overall margin to a couple of goals.

Both Ntcham and substitute Scott Sinclair responded with efforts at the other end but there was to be no late recovery.

Zenit St Petersburg: Lunev, Ivanovic (Smolnikov 87), Mevlja, Mammana, Criscito, Paredes, Kranevitter, Kuzyaev, Rigoni (Driussi 84), Zabolotny (Erokhin 76), Kokorin

subs (unused): Lodygin, Terentjev, Poloz, Zhirkov

Goals: Ivanovic (7), Kuzyaev (27), Kokorin (61)

Celtic: de Vries, Forrest (Musonda 71), Lustig, Simunovic, Ajer, Tierney, Kouassi (Rogic 46), McGregor (Sinclair 62), Brown, Ntcham, Dembele

subs (unused): Hendry, Edouard, Bain, Miller

Ref: A. Mateu Lahoz

Att:

Share this article