MARTIN O’NEILL is adamant that Celtic can progress to the last 16 of the Champions League – even though Ange Postecoglou’s side only have one point on the board at the midway stage of the campaign.
A 3-0 defeat at home to Real Madrid raised the curtain on the Glasgow team’s return to Europe’s top table before Celtic were held to a 1-1 draw away to Shakhtar Donetsk in their next match, fashioning plenty of opportunities but failing to take them.
The Premiership champions threatened a comeback in Germany last week when Jota cancelled out Christopher Nkunku’s opener for RB Leipzig before a howler from Joe Hart handed the Bundesliga side the lead. Andre Silva added a third to put the game beyond Celtic with around 15 minutes left to play.
Despite it all, O’Neill has seen enough from Postecoglou’s team in their three group stage outings thus far to leave the former Celtic boss convinced that they have got what it takes to reach the last 16.
“I have watched all three games on TV,” he said. “In the first game against Real Madrid, I thought they did really great in the game. They had a great chance to take the lead.
“Regardless of Real Madrid's assuredness, it might have been a different story if they'd scored the first goal.
“Again, they could easily have won the game against Donetsk. Considering they were away from home against Leipzig, they had some chances as well.
“This game is now massive. They really have to win it. But they are genuinely capable of winning the game.”
He continued: “I remember getting past Ajax to reach the group phase for the first time and I thought ‘yes, let’s go’. We got to 2-2 in the game at Juventus and the referee gave a penalty kick for essentially nothing.
“That point eventually became so, so important because we ended up with nine points and didn't go through.
“It is possible Ange might get through with seven. If they win these home games, they must have a really decent chance. I think they are capable of winning those games.
“I honestly think they do have to win them. It was an interesting result when Shakhtar went to Leipzig and won. I thought that was a really good result for Celtic.
“Leipzig would probably be considered the second team in the group, behind Real Madrid, so to lose a home game I thought was good news and eventually it might still work out that way.”
As O’Neill suggests, nothing less than a victory will do for Celtic if they are to reach the knockout phase of the tournament. That could lead to some tinkering on Postecoglou’s part, he says, as he is certain that the Greek-Australian will have learned a lot from those opening three games.
“There is a difference between learning something and then changing,” O’Neill explained. “If I went back to my first year when we played Porto. We went there and we played the three at the back.
“For the first time, they pushed all three up against us. They played the game just outside our penalty area. Essentially, you could have forgotten about the rest of the game - it was three versus three.
“You talk about learning lessons from that and having a different approach. It made me start thinking about things.
“There will be things that Ange has learned. He’s no fool. He will still want to go and attack, and that’s fine. Because it's their first year in it and they have a youngish side, I think the Celtic fans will go along with that.
“But don't get me wrong, from all three games he will have learned things.
“If he doesn’t change, that's to his credit. But I think he will feel that Celtic are capable of scoring goals.
“You can learn but you don't have to change everything because someone says ‘oh, you’re a bit open’. They have been a wee bit unlucky in games.
"People will say the results are the most important things - which they are - but so far considering the number of points they don’t have, they have acquitted themselves very well.”
Martin O'Neill was speaking at the launch of William Hill’s newly transformed, state-of-the-art shop on Gordon Street, Glasgow.
