Celtic up their defensive work ahead of Zenit clash

Celtic know they will have to be on high alert in defence on Thursday night when Zenit St Petersburg come to Glasgow.

The Hoops have been hit with a few injuries to the squad, especially at the back, meaning Jozo Simunovic and Kristoffer Ajer will more than likely be the centre-half pairing for this week’s Europa League last 32 tie against Roberto Mancini’s side.

Brendan Rodgers’ men have been caught out at the back in recent games, leading the Irishman into having discussions with his backline about what they can do to prevent the Russian outfit from breaking through.

New signing Marvin Compper is cup-tied for the game, with Belgian Dedryck Boyata ruled out due to a groin injury.

Assistant manager Chris Davies has been quoted by the Daily Record saying:

The manager has been reinforcing to them the concentration aspect. It’s really important at this level. When you are facing teams like Zenit it can be about that mental fatigue. You need to concentrate, be switched on and alive, for every single moment of the game. That’s going to be very important on Thursday to ensure we are defensively solid.

Domestically we are used to having a lot of the ball, then you come in to Europe and you are not the team with most of the ball. It’s something you look at in training and try to help the players. The manager has been reinforcing to the player the important of defensive organisation, concentrating on being hard to beat. We know we have threats going the other way.

Zenit scored the most goals out of any team during the Europa League group stage phase after finding the net 17 times in six games.

The Hoops know that they will have to be on top of their game in order to get anything from it.