FC Bayern Munich will face FC Brugge in the third game of the group stage in the Champions League. Two old acquaintances from Germany shine there – albeit from the House of Commons.
To get to where Christos Tzolis and Nicolo Tresoldi are now, they had to go through the hard school. At FC Brugge, the Greek senior national player and the German U21 international are among the most important offensive players; with 15 (Tzolis) and eight (Tresoldi) participations in competitive goals this season, they are their team’s top scorers.
For these actions and the Champions League game at FC Bayern Munich on Wednesday (9 p.m., in the ticker and audio stream on sportschau.de), they first had to go to the steel baths of the German 2nd league. Before the football artists’ concert, they had to fight in the House of Commons. You can see in Bruges that this didn’t hurt them at all. The German record champions should now also be shown this.
Sports show Champions League Live, ARD, October 22nd, 2025 8:50 p.m
Tzolis’ successful Career restart in Düsseldorf
Tzolis is only 23 years old, but has already experienced all kinds of emotions in his career. In Greece he was considered a super talent and, as a 19-year-old, moved to the Premier League for newly promoted Norwich City for eleven million euros. Tzolis hung on for three years, and a loan to Twente Enschede didn’t bring any improvement – and then the German 2nd league got him back on the right path.
The Greek almost single-handedly shot Fortuna Düsseldorf into the Bundesliga with 22 league goals and won his way into people’s hearts with his entire style. His carefree manner was met with a lot of love, which a player like Tzolis needs. Despite missing out on promotion, Fortuna took out the purchase option for 3.5 million euros – but knew that their star player would not stay. The salary could not be met and an exit clause of six million euros was anchored in the contract.
His class gives Tzolis a permanent place in the rumor mill
Tzolis needed the 2nd league, but it was only supposed to be a stopover for him. Brugge took a bite and secured a bargain. With 21 competitive goals in his first year, Tzolis also became a star in Belgium; his market value has grown to 30 million euros, according to the transfermarkt.de portal. There were already high-profile rumors about a return to the Premier League in the summer.
It is currently said that AFC Bournemouth want to bring in Tzolis in the winter and Brugge would ask for a price of at least 40 million euros. The player only extended his contract until 2029 in July – but it could have been more of a price gouge than a real commitment. With a top performance in Munich, Tzolis could increase his market value even further.
After a rocky start, Tresoldi thrives in Bruges
Tresoldi’s thoughts don’t go that far yet; he only moved to Bruges a few months ago. But he’s already making a huge impression there. Although he doesn’t have the CV of a Tzoli, he managed to immediately assert himself at the top Belgian club. This is not a given for a striker who previously only played second division football for Hannover 96 for three years as a youth player.
In Hanover, Tresoldi scored 14 goals in 80 competitive games as a professional, scoring every 342 minutes. As a first division and Champions League player, the 21-year-old has taken significantly less time in Bruges so far; he took photos there every 200 minutes in his first 18 appearances. In addition, he has prepared half as many goals with three assists in less than a quarter of the games than in his entire second division career in Hanover.
A few weeks ago Tresoldi said that the start would be in Bruges “not that easy” after he started preparing late after the U21 European Championships. But he was convinced that the change “It was the right decision”. He now underlines this on the pitch. Like Tzolis, Tresoldi never managed to get a game against FC Bayern in Germany. Thanks to their development in the second division, they could now become Bayern’s terror in the Champions League.
