Dorus de Vries has blamed a ‘knuckle ball’ for losing Celtic’s second goal to Zenit St Petersburg.
Celtic looked in trouble from the moment Branislav Ivanovic powered in the opening goal from a corner with Daler Kuzyaev powering in the second before the half hour mark.
While the ball did swerve in flight de Vries seemed to be positioned too far to his right to be able to block the shot.
It was a sickening blow as all of the good work from the first leg was cancelled out as Zenit powered through facing little resistance from the visitors.
Explaining the second goal de Vries told The Sun: “I don’t know if you are familiar with the term ‘knuckle ball’.
“Search for it online and you can see what happens with the flight of the ball. Unfortunately, it’s so difficult for a goalkeeper.
“There is no spin on the ball, it just moves a little bit to the right and so initially I moved to the right.
“Then it moves left at the last moment, and with that pace on the ball you can only hope to get a good hand to it but it was so quick and it makes it so hard.
“I knew this could happen because they have a few players who can hit the ball like that.
“It is difficult. If the ball keeps its flight or keeps going right, then it’s fine because you are already moving that way but if the ball moves after you step right and it goes across you, then it’s a nightmare.”
While a defeat wasn’t unexpected it was the nature of the collapse that shocked the Celtic support.
Seven days after an impressive, confident and aggressive display in the home leg the hoops looked totally out of their depth against the same opponents.
Brendan Rodgers now has to lift his side for Sunday’s match away to Aberdeen as the focus turns to domestic matters.
