Q: On the milestone of reaching 1,000 games, if you reflect over the previous 999, is there one in particular in your mind that if someone was to say to you a particular game, is there one that is a standout for you that you maybe think of more than others?
Julian Araujo celebrates at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, last Sunday! Yeah, there have been some great moments. Some not so good. Everything else. But, I genuinely have not thought about it. Please. But if I think of something, I’ll tell you. But there have been some great days in that. As I say, some days you don’t want to forget.”
Q: suppose there’s that old manager cliche that the next game is always the most important, but that will feel like the case going into Thursday night, that your full focus is on this game tomorrow and how you can progress in this competition?
Martin O’Neill: “Absolutely. We’re in it. We might as well have a go. And I think that’s what we want to do. We know it’s going to be a difficult game over the two legs. If it had been condensed to one, you never know. But yeah, it will be difficult. But I want to be positive. We will be. And we’ll try and get off to a half-decent start. That would help us.”
Q: Do you feel, given the work that was done in January, the squad are in a better place now to compete further in Europe than they maybe would have been before the January window?
Kasper Schmeichel of Celtic applauds the fans with team-mates after the match Midtjylland vs Celtic, UEFA Europa League, Group Stage, Football, MCH Arena, Herning, Denmark – 06 Nov 2025Herning MCH Arena Denmark Photo Michael Zemanek IMAGO/Shutterstock
Martin O’Neill: “Well, Midtjylland was my third game, and it was an eye-opener for me, just how physically strong they were. I’d seen Midtjylland a couple of weeks earlier against Nottingham Forest, so I knew it was going to be difficult. But when you’re actually there, live, involved in the game, you realise you’ve got a lot of work to do to get up to that sort of standard. And then we go and surprise everybody by winning in Feyenoord. We played really well in the game. And I thought that coming from a goal behind showed a bit of character. And then we carried it on in Bologna.
Reo Hatate of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s second goal with teammate Daizen Maeda during the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD5 match between Feyenoord and Celtic FC at De Kuip on November 27, 2025 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
“So I don’t think… I don’t want us to be fearful of the game. You’ve got to go in with some confidence. And if we didn’t get a lift from fighting back on Sunday, then nothing would give you a lift. That was great. I’m accepting the fact that it’s a European night and a side flying in the Bundesliga, but I think you should just leave that aside and let us do as much as we can for ourselves, rather than considering what the opposition might do to you. That’s my point.
“Your second point about whether we’re stronger? I think that, yes, if you think that in Midtjylland, say it was my third game in charge, just getting to know the players, things like that, I think that we do this. And I think, yes, I think that the players that we’ve brought in, in little spurts, have brought something to us.
Tomas Cvancara celebrates at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
“Tomas Cvancara makes the goal in the last minute, scores at home here, makes the goal against Hearts, Junior Adamu scores as well too in the Dundee game, keeps us alive. And so they’ve all played little parts, but it’s not been easy for them to come and settle in. Tomas hadn’t played a great deal of football before that. So I’m hoping by the end of the season that they would have made some mark here and made it worthwhile for them.”
Q&A continues on the next page…
