Brendan Rodgers described Celtic’s display in the 1-0 win over Zenit St Petersburg in the first leg of their Europa League tie as “outstanding”.
Callum McGregor’s stunning 78th-minute strike on his 150th appearance for the Hoops gave Celtic a deserved advantage for the second leg of the round-of-32 tie in Russia next week.
Afterwards, Rodgers said: “It was a very good victory for us. I thought the performance was outstanding.
“We were playing against a top side, I think everyone recognises that. For large parts of the game we controlled it, tactically we were excellent and stayed calm when we had to defend.
“But with the ball, I was really pleased with our personality in the game, the control and calmness and we played with great maturity and capped it off at the end with a fantastic goal.
“We had a couple of other great opportunities. It was very pleasing, the level of creativity and the calmness we showed on the ball.
“We looked a real threat in the final third. We could have had one or two more goals but I can’t be that greedy.
“We have to be happy with the victory and I am delighted with the performance.”
Rodgers believes Zenit’s need for a goal next week could play into their hands.
“Like all of these games if you can keep a clean sheet that is important,” he added.
“The stability the team had, they concentrated and organised themselves very well and that is important.
“To then get the goal…we know that we can score goals and they probably need to come out a little bit now to chase the game and of course that can give us more space and opportunities to score.
“But like tonight it is going to be a tough game but we have given ourselves an opportunity after tonight.”
Aberdeen vs Celtic
February 25, 2018, 1:00pm
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