Europa League: Celtic surprised me but the tie isn’t over, says Zenit star Branislav Ivanovic

ZENIT star Branislav Ivanovic has promised Celtic they will be in line for a much tougher night in Russia this week.

The man who made more than 250 appearances for Chelsea between 2008 and 2017 missed his side’s first-leg defeat on Thursday but is confident of returning to action in the second leg.

“I hope to have permission from the doctor to start the game next week and am very much looking forward to it,” said the Serbian international.

“The first leg was a very interesting game and I thought the atmosphere at Celtic Park was amazing.

“Celtic were great, I was surprised by them.

“They surprised me with a lot of things. I knew the supporters would be behind them but they were a very dangerous team.

“They had really good ideas on the pitch and played very well. They were compact, aggressive, a very good team.

“I thought they were strong and are probably favourites. Of course, they have more chance of going through now after winning 1-0 at home than they did before the game.”

Nevertheless, Ivanovic is quietly confident it will be his team who will be still in the competition come the end of Thursday night.

“We will have to change a lot of things to be on top of the game next week in Russia but, for sure, the tie is not over.

“There was only one goal in it in Glasgow.

“We have one more week to work and prepare for the next game. It will be in our stadium, in front of our fans, so we’ll be doing everything to try and go through.

“Zenit will probably be a different team next week in St Petersburg.

“At home, we’ll be more confident and we’ll have had an extra week’s training.”