ZENIT ST PETERSBURG v CELTIC
Thursday 22nd February 2018 – Kickoff: 2100hrs
Football – Europe – Europa League Betting Tips
Zenit St Petersburg find themselves a goal down in this round of last 16 in the Europa League against Celtic, following last week’s 1-0 defeat in the first leg at Celtic park, and they now need to overhaul their Scottish Premiership opponents at their Stadion Krestovskyi if they’re to progress further in this competition.
Zenit reached this stage by breezing through the group stages where they topped Group L by a four point margin ahead of second placed Real Sociedad, after winning five of their six group matches, and remaining unbeaten throughout.
A particular highlight was their goalscoring prowess as they notched up a group stage high of 17 goals in total, with only Real Sociedad (16 goals) coming close to them. Wins over Real Sociedad and Rosenborg both by 3-1 margins, and a 2-1 win over Vardar helped seal their place in the last 16.
Celtic enter the Europa League at the knock-out phase as they finished in third place in a very tough Champions League Group B which contained the likes of big-spending PSG and German champions, Bayern Munich, along with Anderlecht.
The Hoops managed to pip Anderlecht to third spot by the slenderest of margins (a superior goal difference of +2 in fact), even though they lost their final group match to the Belgians 1-0 at Celtic Park.
The Scots had earlier beaten Anderlecht 3-0 in the opening match of the group, but were found wanting in their subsequent matches as they crashed to five defeats on the trot, including heavy defeats to Bayern Munich 3-0 away and a 7-1 hammering at PSG.
This is therefore an interesting match-up, but I fancy Zenit on home soil to at least win this second leg.
Pick: Zenit St Petersburg to win @ 1.65 Marathonbet
