Celtic suffered a 3-0 defeat to Zenit on Thursday night.
Celtic legend Rab Douglas has criticised Dorus de Vries after the goalkeeper described Daler Kuzyaev’s effort as a “knuckleball” shot that dumbfounded the Dutchman in Russia on Thursday night.
De Vries, who continued to deputise for the injured Craig Gordon against Zenit St. Petersburg, conceded from long range when many would have expected to save Kuzyaev’s effort for Zenit’s second.
Branislav Ivanovic had given Zenit the lead before Kuzyaev’s “knuckleball”. De Vries said, as quoted by the Daily Mail: “I have seen it back. It is a knuckle ball. There is no spin on the ball and a couple of those guys have the ability to do that.”
Aleksandr Kokorin scored in the second half to send Celtic crashing out of the Europa League in the round of 32, and ex-Hoops keeper Douglas has taken to Twitter to criticise de Vries’ comments, saying he has never heard of a “knuckleball”.
The Bhoys had been optimistic going into the second-leg after earning a 1-0 win last week thanks to Callum McGregor, only for a catalogue of defensive errors and a lack of attacking impetus preventing Celtic from producing the same in Russia.
Brendan Rodgers’ side will now be forced to forget about Europa and switch their attention to domestic matters, with a tough test against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Sunday afternoon.
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