Coming up against Virgil van Dijk when Norwich City played Liverpool in the Premier League at Carrow Road back in 2020 proved to be a difficult, eye-opening experience for Adam Idah.
The Celtic striker, who was just 20 when he was pitched in against the man who was the world’s most expensive defender at the time, was unable to score and his team ended up on the receiving end of a 3-0 home defeat.
Yet, the Republic of Ireland forward, as his performances for both club and country since then have shown, learned and improved as a footballer as a result of those 90 minutes against the Dutch centre-half.
Idah is in no doubt that he has benefitted enormously from facing French internationalist Dayot Upamecano of Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League knockout round play-off at Parkhead on Wednesday night as well.
He is convinced he can cause Upamenco and his team mates, who hold a 2-1 lead going into the rematch in the Allianz Arena on Tuesday evening, problems and help Celtic to come from behind and progress to the last 16 of the competition.
Read more:
- Idah believes Celtic can take the fight to Bayern in UCL second leg
- Rodgers emphasises Celtic squad depth, notes Dundee Utd's 'freshness'
“Van Dijk's probably the toughest I've gone up against,” he said. “But Upamecano was unbelievable. They're obviously top, top defenders. They're the best players in the world for a reason.
“But all of us boys believe in ourselves and we're confident we can go up against these guys. That's what we want to do. You want to play against the best teams and the best players to give yourself a chance against these guys.
“Van Dijk's probably the best defender I've played against. He's a whole different level. I played against him when I was young, to be fair. But you do pick up on things.
“For me, because of my presence, I always used to think I can have a scrap with these guys. But it's different. When you come up against the best defenders, they're so smart and they know exactly what they're doing.
“You need to learn more. You do pick up things against the top players, see things you need to do better when you watch the game back. Everyone has weaknesses. You can pick up on their weaknesses also. That's something that us attackers, need to do.
“I think that's the case for probably every game you play. You'll always look back at the games and see bits and pieces that you can improve on or things you could target. There are bits and pieces that you could look at. I think that's going to be with every game. They'll do the same with us of course. It's about going out and doing it better.”
The late fightback which Brendan Rodgers’ side staged against Vincent Kompany’s team in midweek – they pulled a goal back through Daizen Maeda and nearly equalised in injury-time – has certainly given Idah hope they can pull off an upset and go through.
“When we went 2-0 down, I don't think anyone in the team thought, ‘We're out of this now’,” he said. “Everyone thought we were still in the game. To be fair to the boys, they did great and came back into it.
“That's the attitude and belief we've got now. I've seen previous games before where we've gone down and probably gave up a bit and the mentality went. But we were excellent the other day and got into the game. Although the result wasn't the best for us, we kept in it and kept ourselves in the tie.
“We showed that in the Villa game too, coming back from two down. It’s just up to us now. The players on the pitch have to go out and do it. Everyone's really confident that we can go and try and get something from the game. It's a really exciting game on Tuesday and we're all looking forward to it.”
Idah was devastated when Nicholas Kuhn’s early goal against Bayern – the Celtic winger netted after just 28 seconds – was disallowed because he had been in an offside position and had been obscuring the view of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
“I still haven't made my mind up about it,” he said. “It's a bit of a strange one. Obviously from the keeper's perspective it's difficult. He's one of the best goalkeepers in the world so I'm sure he might make the save if he's not blocked.
“But, then again, I'm outside the six yard box. It's a difficult one to take. From my perspective, I did all I could to get it out of way of the ball and leave enough space. I think some give it, some don't. These things happen.”
Read more:
- Boyd rejects Rangers’ ‘can’t keep changing managers’ theory
- Youth-focused SPFL reforms approved ahead of 2025/26 season
The 24-year-old, an £8.5m signing from Norwich back in August, felt the backing which the Celtic crowd gave the players at Parkhead on Wednesday night was important to their late comeback and believes they will once again be key next week.
There were fears they would not be allowed to travel to Bavaria because of the flares which were set off during the final league phased match in Birmingham last month – but UEFA only fined the Scottish champions.
“Celtic fans are known worldwide for their support and having them along with us is unbelievable,” said Idah. “There are going to be tough times in the game, moments where you might be struggling. They give you that bit extra. It's great that they're going to be there.
“It does help because it’s a hard shift, especially in Europe. The games can be tough. In certain games you're not going to have as much as a ball so you have to have that defensive mindset. Especially for us attackers, we are a bit greedy at times so we might not want to do the defensive side.
"But you have to do that for the team. It can be a shift but also you can get your rewards from it. We've learnt a lot from the start of this phase, bringing an attacking style of football into it and also the defensive style.
“Overall, it's been brilliant. It is tough. But that's why we work so hard on the training days and prepare all our work for games like that. If you put in the hard work, you can get the rewards from it. We just have to stick to it now and hopefully do our best on Tuesday.”
