Zenit boss is confident of beating Celtic in the second leg.
Celtic beat Zenit St Petersburg 1-0 last night thanks to a late goal from Callum McGregor.
The victory gave Celtic a useful but not insurmountable first leg lead heading into next week’s tie in Russia.
Zenit manager Roberto Mancini spoke after the game and blamed his side’s loss on a lack of recent competitive action.
This game was their first since December and Mancini admits Zenit were at a disadvantage and they hope they will be able to overturn their deficit next week.
In fact Mancini is confident, stating he was ‘100 per cent’ Zenit will win the second leg.
He told Tuttomercatoweb: “We did not play for a long time, we could not do anything about it and we played this game after two months and I hope that next week we will be more ready, I am 100% optimistic about the possibility of overturning this result, in seven days we can improve our condition.”
The tie is finely poised and Mancini may well have a point about his team lacking match practice but they still have another match to make up for their loss.
Zenit’s failure to score an away goal could end up costing them though, and if Celtic can score early then it will put the Russian side under real pressure.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
