Paulo Bernardo used to marvel at the skills of Jota as he was coming through as a youngster at Benfica, and then his decision to come to Celtic was partly influenced by the success that his former clubmate had in Glasgow.

Now, after the chance to play with Jota in the green and white hoops just passed him by a couple of years ago, the midfielder is thrilled to be able to team up with his old friend for the first time as a senior professional, and he tipped the Portuguese winger to be a sensation all over again at Celtic Park.

Bernardo says that the famous song the Celtic support sing in honour of Jota reached his ears even when he was still a Benfica player, and he is sure that the pair will be in tune with one another soon enough for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

“I heard that before, even when I was in Portugal,” Bernardo laughed.

“I think it's a nice song.

“It's nice to be with him again. We played together in Benfica for one pre-season. I think I knew him as a kid. He was always at Benfica, like me.

“I'm really excited to have him [here] and play with him again.

“I just said to him, if he needs something now, I can help. Before, he told me that if I needed something, I could count on him.

“It was just one pre-season [we played together] because he's three years older than me, and I was in a few teams below him. But he was unbelievable at Benfica, and he was unbelievable at Celtic. I hope he does better here now.

“I think Jota showed a lot of Portuguese young players that Celtic is a very good club to be at. It definitely helped me to be here now.

“He's really happy. I talked to him and he's really excited to be part of the club again and to be here with us. He just wants to play football again.

“He did very well the last two years when he was here. The fans love him, and I think he loves the fans too.

“I'm excited to play with him and he just wants to play football.”

Bernardo thinks that it is their grounding at Benfica, a club where a winning mentality is also a prerequisite, that has made his own and Jota’s transitions to Celtic so seamless.

“Yeah, I think Benfica and Celtic are similar clubs in that aspect,” he said.

“We want to win every game at both clubs, so I think it helps.

“His game was always to dribble and to go forward to the players and score goals and make assists.

“I think he's a really complete player and I think he will definitely help the group right now.”

As one fan favourite arrived back at Celtic from Rennes, another was of course heading the other way, with Bernardo admitting that the loss of Kyogo Furuhashi will be a massive blow to the side and to the dressing room.

“It's sad to lose a player,” he said.

“Kyogo was an unbelievable player at Celtic, I think one of the best.

“But yeah, it's football and we have to move on, and he has to move on too. Football is like that, and we need to be ready for that.”

Even without Kyogo, as well as the suspended Daizen Maeda and the injured Cameron Carter-Vickers, Bernardo feels that Celtic are also ready for the challenge posed by Aston Villa in Birmingham this evening.

Both sides know that a win on the night will give them a chance to qualify in the top eight of the league phase of the Champions League, with Villa’s tally of 13 points one better than Celtic’s total at kick off.

“It's Champions League night again and I’m very excited to be here and to play at this level again,” he said “We face a top team in England, so we are really excited to play. I think it will be a great match to watch.

“We want to win all the games so we will do our best to get a very good result here.

“In Celtic, I think we are used to playing with pressure all the games, because we have a lot of responsibility to win every game.

“So, we are used to pressure, and I think this is just a normal game to us, not playing differently, because we will try to do our best and to get a great result here.

“I think it would be great if we can achieve that [the top eight], but I think right now we did very well at this stage, and we are really happy with our progress until here.

“We have that opportunity, and we will try to make that happen.”