Zenit St Petersburg defender Branislav Ivanovic is relishing the prospect of a reunion with Celtic forward Scott Sinclair. The pair had spent two seasons together at Chelsea before the latter decided to join Swansea City under then-boss Brendan Rodgers in 2010.

In an interview covered by The Sunday Post, the 33-year-old suggested that Sinclair always had the potential to be a 'very good' player, and he could be up for a tough night against the attacker at Parkhead in the Europa League tie on Thursday night. He said: "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."

Meanwhile, Rodgers was Chelsea's reserve team coach when Ivanovic arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2008, and he believes that the 45-year-old is the perfect fit for the Hoops, owing to his ability to nurture and offer chances to younger talents on the playing field, he added: "I think he is a very good manager and he is very passionate. He takes care of everything, he understands football, and he can build teams because he always gives chances to young players. I respect him a lot."
Celtic struggled to find their feet on the road to Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain during the Champions League group stage earlier in the season. However, now that they have dropped in the Europa League and Rodgers will hope to keep a better defensive display, which may start with their home-leg versus Zenit on Thursday.
Zenit are pretty much perennials when it comes to competing at this level, but they have not possessed the dominance in the latter stages of the competition, something which has let them down in recent seasons. The Russian outfit bowed out in the round of 32 last year after they lost to Anderlecht on the away-goal rule.