Celtic resume their European campaign on Thursday as Russian giants Zenit visit Parkhead for the first leg of their last-32 Europa League tie.
Some reunions of some sorts are on the cards, with former Chelsea right-back Branislav Ivanovic set to meet with former teammate and Hoops forward Scott Sinclair.
Boss Brendan Rodgers was Chelsea’s reserve/youth team manager when the 33-year-old first arrived Stamford Bridge a decade ago, and triple English Premier League winner can’t wait to play against his former friends.
Ivanovic will likely be playing directly against Sinclair come Thursday, and he remembers the type of trouble that comes with marking such a talented winger.
The Blues legend was full of praises for the 28-year-old as he reminisced on their time together at west London.
Ivanonic also revealed how Chelsea, a 5-time winning EPL side, were keen on holding to Sinclair due to his huge potential at the time.
He told the Sunday Post: “Scott and I played together a few times. He was good, although he was very young when we were at Chelsea. He wanted to make a career elsewhere, though, where he could get more regular games.
“He was one of those who you knew had the potential to be very good. Chelsea wanted to keep him, but he decided to leave.
“He’s a very dangerous player, and I could come up against him directly in Glasgow. It would be a good contest. It will just be like training at Chelsea again. To have someone like him in the Celtic team proves how difficult it will be for us.”
Sinclair failed to make the grade at Chelsea, but did link up with Rodgers at Swansea in 2010 before finally leaving England for Scotland.
He remains one of Celtic’s most potent attacking threats, and would hope to cause Zenit a lot of problems both home and away.