Celtic v Zenit St. Petersburg Team News
Celtic
Tomas Rogic was an unused substitute at the weekend after a two-month absence through injury.
Celtic are expected to be without at least five players because of injury, while Patrick Roberts remains a doubt.
Charly Musonda has been added to their squad following his January arrival from Chelsea on loan.
Jozo Simunovic will incur a one-match ban for the trip to Russia if he is booked on Thursday.
Zenit St. Petersburg
Zenit will hoped to have used the winter break to recover some of their injured players. They have a few doubts ahead of Thursday’s trip to Scotland.
Aleksandr Erokhin will miss the reverse leg if he is booked on Thursday.
Match Facts
Zenit have been winning at both half time and full time in 6 of their last 7 matches (UEFA Europa League).
Zenit have won 6 of their last 7 matches (UEFA Europa League).
Celtic have failed to win their last 11 matches (UEFA Europa League).
There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 5 of Zenit’s last 6 games (UEFA Europa League).
Zenit have scored at least 2 goals in 5 of their last 6 matches (UEFA Europa League).
Prediction
Celtic dropped down to the knockout phase of the Europa League after finishing third in their Champions League group behind Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain. Brendan Rodgers’ side have only lost three matches at home this season, but they have all been in European competition.
This is Zenit’s first competitive match of 2018 as they aren’t due to resume their league campaign until the start of March. The Russian giants topped their Europa League group, but have only won one of their last seven, drawing five times in that run.
Zenit are favourites to progress from this tie and are unbeaten in their last seven European matches. However, they’ve not kept a clean sheet in their last five and will have to allow for some ring rust having not played competitively in over two months.