Can Celtic finish the job in St Petersburg? Not according to Charlie Nicholas.
Charlie Nicholas has told Sky Sports that he expects former club Celtic to surrender their 1-0 aggregate lead over Zenit St Petersburg as Brendan Rodgers’s side brace themselves for the subzero temperature of Russia on Thursday.
Callum McGregor’s goal at Parkhead last week means that Celtic have given themselves a fighting chance of reaching the last 16 of the Europa League.
Rodgers’s troops went into that one on the back of some relatively disappointing domestic form in which questions were asked of their defence.
And Nicholas concedes that he was surprised to see the Hoops look so solid against Roberto Mancini’s side in Glasgow but, as his friends keep telling him, it was Zenit’s first competitive outing for two months.
As a result, Nicholas suggests that Zenit will be better equipped to deal with Celtic this time around – and questions whether his old side can cope with the weather, with a forecast of -11 in St Petersburg on Thursday.
“I have to admit Celtic’s defensive structure, which had been all over the place, looked excellent last weekend to go against my prediction that they’d lose the first leg,” he told Sky Sports.
“Plenty of my friends point out that Zenit haven’t played in months but more importantly Celtic showed they do have Plan B in European games when they know they’re not going to dominate the ball.
“People might think us Scots are okay with the weather over there but the conditions are a different level of cold and I’m afraid I’m going for a tough night for the travellers and another Celtic defeat.”
It will be a big ask for Celtic to see out their slender advantage, but their lead over Rangers in the Scottish Premiership was cut to nine points on Sunday.
Even if they lose, it should, in theory, allow them to focus on picking up a seventh Premiership title in a row and take another step closer to the sought-after 10-in-a-row.
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