NO sooner was the draw made for the group stages of this season’s UEFA Europa League than Boli Bolingoli was on the phone to his cousin, Jordan Lukaku, looking forward to the clashes between Celtic and Lazio.

The cousins find themselves in opposing camps – Lukaku with the Italian side and Bolingoli in the green and white of Celtic. And even if they don’t find themselves facing up on the pitch, given that Lukaku has just returned from a long-term injury, Bolingoli explained that it will be good to meet up with his cousin… after the game, of course.

“It’s a good game to play against a team like Lazio, who are a big club in Italy,” he told tonight’s matchday programme. “We want to go for the win, of course, and keep top place in the group.

“We’ve made a good start in our campaign and I think we can continue like this. What’s also in our favour is that we’re playing the first game against Lazio at home, so we can hopefully get a good result.

“We’re wanting to take all three points, of course, and it would mean that in our last three games in the group, we can go and do something so that, hopefully, at the end of this year, we can continue the European campaign after the winter break.

“Lazio will be dangerous. Italian teams are never easy to play against. They’re aggressive and tactically are very good, but with our quality, I’m confident that we can do something in this game.

“You can see from the first two games in the group that everyone is capable of beating everyone else, so we just have to concentrate on ourselves and play our game. Anything can happen in football, but as long as we do our job on the pitch, we have a chance of taking all three points tonight.”

He added: “It’s always great to play at home but European games are special, and the last game against Cluj was an amazing feeling,” the Belgian defender said. “The atmosphere was crazy, we won 2-0 and everything was perfect. So we just want to continue like that in the campaign, stay focused and take it game-by-game.

“For me, the atmosphere was even better than I could have imagined. At first, when you sign for Celtic and you hear about these nights and you’re looking forward to them, but when you’re on the pitch at Paradise, it feels even better than when you think about it. The feeling when you’re in the stadium is a great feeling.

“That first goal was a real team effort. It started with good build-up play from behind and then I was on the end of it to set up Odsonne.

“That goal was great. The pass from Callum was perfect. I just had to make the run and I knew he would put the ball in front of me perfectly, so it was a great pass.

“If we win this game tonight, it puts us in a good position for the rest of the group campaign, but we’re just taking it game by game and are only focused on this game against Lazio.”

For the full interview with Boli Bolingoli, see tonight’s matchday programme on sale at the game.

It’s a family affair for Boli Bolingoli against Lazio tonight