Martin O’Neill's Celtic: A Remarkable Return to Champions League
Martin O’Neill stood on the touchline again on Tuesday night, staring down another European occasion. Twenty-two years since he last prowled a Champions League technical area, he now finds himself one commanding performance away from going back.
Some of the players driving his Celtic side towards that stage were not even born when O’Neill’s last act in the competition unfolded – a goalless group-stage draw with AC Milan at Celtic Park in 2004. They know that night only from grainy clips and old stories. He lived it. He shaped it.
Now, at 74, he is shaping something else.
A veteran at the helm, still calling the shots
Earlier this month, O’Neill was in hospital for what the club described as a "small procedure". He missed a comfortable Scottish Premiership win at Kilmarnock while he recovered, a reminder of the years on the clock and the toll of a life spent in football.
Yet watch Celtic for five minutes and there is no doubt where the authority lies.
He is the figurehead, the decision-maker, the man whose fingerprints are all over last season’s title and cup double and this season’s crisp, confident start. Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham run the training ground, but O’Neill runs the show.
"Martin is a manager," former Celtic midfielder Scott Brown said on Sportsound. "The times have changed but it is amazing that he has moved with them.
"See the calmness when he talks on radio or TV – he just oozes confidence. You can imagine what he does to fans, to us, to players, he oozes that confidence and that calmness as well."
That calmness has become Celtic’s compass.
LASK arrive in form – and are blown away
LASK, champions of Austria and brimming with momentum, came to Glasgow’s east end ready to test Celtic’s European credentials. They created chances, asked questions, carried threat.
Then Celtic answered with three spectacular replies.
Benjamin Nygren lit the night up first, cutting across the ball and driving a fierce strike into the top corner. It was the kind of finish that changes the noise inside a stadium – from hopeful to expectant in an instant.
The pressure grew, the tempo rose, and just before half-time the new man stepped forward. Camilo Duran, a summer signing still introducing himself to the Celtic support, met a cross with a stunning volley, a magnificent second that ripped past the goalkeeper and tilted the tie heavily in Celtic’s favour.
LASK were still swinging after the break, but the contest had shifted. Celtic played with a freedom that comes when you trust the man in charge. The third goal underlined it: Nygren, now tormentor and creator, teed up Duran, and the Colombian forward thundered in his second of the night.
Three goals. Three statements. One foot, very firmly, on the Champions League ladder.
A legend who walked back through the door
O’Neill will not get carried away. He never has. He stressed afterwards that the job is not done, that there is still a second leg to survive. Yet this latest win slots neatly into a remarkable late chapter of his career.
When Brendan Rodgers resigned last October, Celtic turned back to a familiar face. O’Neill came out of retirement, initially to steady the ship in an interim role. One spell became two. Those caretaker stints turned into something far more dramatic: an unlikely league and cup double, pulled together by a man who had supposedly left this level behind.
The club asked him to stay. Earlier this summer, he agreed to take the job on a permanent basis. It felt romantic at the time. It now looks inspired.
"Sometimes it's hard to see what Martin does for the team, but he seems to be able to mould a side," former Scotland winger Pat Nevin said on Match of the Day.
"The great managers do that. It's understanding what players work with other types of players and getting the best out of them.
"The job he did last season was out of this world. Whatever happens, he will always be a legend of the club, but if they have a good run in Europe, that's fantastic."
That is the tantalising prospect now. One more step and the 74-year-old who once lit up Champions League nights at Celtic Park will walk back into that arena, leading a new generation who grew up hearing his name sung from the stands.
The question is no longer whether he belongs at this level. It’s how far this late, unexpected encore can go.
