In-form ex-Norwich City duo Adam Idah and Christos Tzolis go head-to-head in Celtic’s midweek Champions League home tie against Club Brugge.
Idah scored twice from the bench in the Bhoys’ 4-1 Scottish Premiership away win at Hearts on Saturday, while Tzolis notched a remarkable four goals in Brugge’s 7-0 Belgian top flight hammering of Sint-Truidense.
Both departed the Canaries last summer after failing to establish themselves under a number of head coaches at Carrow Road.
Idah completed a protracted initial £8.5m return to Parkhead, following a successful loan stint. Tzolis’ prolific season-long loan move to Fortuna Dusseldorf triggered a £3m buy option from the Bundesliga.2 club, before the Greek then moved swiftly onto Brugge for a reported £5.5m.
The attacking duo have already opened their Champions League goal accounts in this season’s revised format, and Idah is hoping his Tynecastle double earns him a rare start.
“We do relish the home games in Europe,” said the Republic of Ireland international, who now has seven goals in 17 Celtic appearances since completing his permanent Norfolk exit. “The first game against Bratislava was something I’ll never forget. Every time you have a Champions League game it’s really exciting, and you want to win these type of matches.
“We have been really good so far, we need to keep pushing.
“For us as a group we’ve really taken each game as it comes. I don’t think I’ve looked at the table once — and I don’t know where we are sitting going into this one.
“It’s just about us getting as many points as we can, and scoring as many goals as we can in the games. Then we’ll see where we are.
“We feel we can compete with anyone. The Dortmund match wasn’t the best night but before the Leipzig game we got together as a group and had confidence we could win. We are not afraid to play anyone.”
Idah is playing with a broken nose at present after a collision in a league game against Kilmarnock earlier this month.
“I had a bad concussion,” he said, speaking to reporters at the weekend. “I think the nose is broken but I just need to wait until it settles down a bit as there is still a bit of swelling.
“I don’t know if I’ll get it fixed — I’m quite scared to be honest! It’s the first time I’ve ever broken it, it was inevitable at some point.
“We’ll see how it goes. I avoided the black eyes but it was tough breathing and sleeping, and I was getting bad headaches. But after a couple of days it was fine.”
