THE original siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days but Zenit St Petersburg’s battered defences could only hold out for 78 minutes at Celtic Park last night.

Just when it appeared that Roberto Mancini’s Russians had weathered all the heavy artillery Celtic could throw at them, the pressure finally told giving Brendan Rodgers and his side a priceless first-leg advantage to take to the Baltic port in a week’s time. 

All the narrow escapes which had gone before it only seemed to make the moment sweeter. Substitute Charly Musonda’s instinctive pass over the top to Callum McGregor was special enough, but the final touch came from one of our own Scottish talents. McGregor’s cushioned touch on the chest and half volley in off the underside of the bar with his wrong foot was sublime. 

Read more: Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers: We have given ourselves a great opportunity​

Okay, so this was only the Europa League, not the Champions League, but it was a moment every bit as special as the same player’s goal which punctuated an equally excellent European display against Bayern Munich before Christmas. Then, Celtic ultimately lost a late goal and lost the game, but here they finished the night in the driving seat of this 
last-32 tie.

It took Gordon Strachan a while to be persuaded about the merits of building his Scotland team around a core of Celtic youngsters. Forty-five minutes last night was probably sufficient to convince Alex McLeish he must do likewise. 

It must have been heartening for the SFA’s new man as he surveyed the task ahead of him to see the likes of Kieran Tierney, McGregor and James Forrest leading Zenit St Petersburg the kind of merry dance they did for long spells last night. 

Now all he has to do is persuade them all to be as integral to his plans as they were to those of his predecessor, including a controversial little summer jaunt to Mexico and Peru just when Celtic are doing everything they can to return to the Champions League. If those three will be new to McLeish, Scott Brown – assuming McLeish can persuade the Celtic captain to prolong his international career for another few years – is no stranger from his time in charge of Scotland a decade ago.

Zenit are a club who will always have a special place in the hearts of Celtic supporters, having thwarted Rangers’ in the 2008 UEFA Cup final in Manchester, following that up with triumph over Manchester United in the Super Cup final just for good measure. This was actually their second visit to Scotland, having faced Morton as Zenit Leningrad back in a Cappielow friendly in November 1972. It was also their first match of any description since a goalless draw against Terek Grozny more than two months ago and it showed.  

Zenit finished third in the Russian league last season and under the charge of Roberto Mancini, a last-gasp Barclays Premier League winner with Manchester City, they had won five of their Europa League group-stage ties, drawing only one, against Rosenborg in Norway.

Another well-kent face from the English game, Champions League and Europa League winner Branislav Ivanovic, was only fit for a place on the bench.

Read more: Celtic 1, Zenit St Petersburg 0: Callum McGregor strikes in Europa League thriller

This was Celtic’s fourth joust with Russian opposition and they continued to enjoy the whip hand. Striker Aleksandr Kokorin had scored a winning goal for Dinamo Moscow here in a 2009 play-off tie, but even that was not sufficient to prevent Tony Mowbray’s side recording a 2-1 aggregate win in that Champions League play-off tie.

Having said that, not everyone of a Celtic persuasion was overflowing with optimism as kick-off approached. The word makeshift was a little unfair, but Brendan Rodgers was dealing with the kind of list of casualties which most NHS wards would struggle to handle.

Eyes were trained on Dorus de Vries, as the goalkeeper played his first European match since shipping seven goals at Camp Nou early in Rodgers’ reign, but his distribution was largely sound and he stuck out a priceless foot to defy Anton Zabolotny after a fine cross from Mancini’s countryman Domenico Criscito.

Then there was the defence, an area of the team which was inducing panic in some watchers during the Scottish Cup win at the weekend. As it was, it was the relatively untested Kristoffer Ajer got the nod over Jack Hendry to partner Jozo Simunovic at the back, but for much of this match the pair dealt with everything the Russians had to throw at them, and passed the ball out from the back nervelessly in the face of some awkward pressing.

The only criticism that could be aimed at them was the fact they could not find an earlier final touch which the standard of their play fully merited. 

It was possible to lose count of the times that Tierney outstripped Igor Smolinkov down the left and whipped enticing crosses into the box. From one of these devilish deliveries, it kind of summed up most of Celtic’s night in front of goal that Moussa Dembele and Kouassi should end up in the net as the ball whistled wide. McGregor and Ntcham both had presentable shooting chances, before Kouassi stung the palms of Andrei Lunev. There was joy and relief when the Scottish siege which had been laid all night finally hit home.