O’Neill remains defiant

MARTIN O’NEILL is bravely standing by his after-match comments in Seville and has insisted the only people feeling embarrassed today should be the UEFA Cup winners.

The Celtic manager is in hot water with European football's governing body for criticising Michel Lubos after his side's controversial 3-2 final defeat to FC Porto.

He also vented his anger at their opponents for their unsporting antics during the game and yesterday he even suggested that their euphoria will now be replaced by shame.

"It's straight forward," snapped O'Neill. "Everybody in the stadium saw the amount of time it took to celebrate the goals, which was extraordinary.

"Then the goalkeeper (Vitor Baia) jumps out of the penalty box which is seen so clearly on television so when they play it back to themselves and they've got the UEFA Cup right beside them there must be a tinge of embarrassment."

"I have timed the length of time the celebration took which is extraordinary and the goalkeeper went down for two minutes and 15 seconds yet TV showed he hadn't been touched.

"Those are the type of things that go in the game and we were aware beforehand and we've been aware of that for a long time.

"People say that's creeping into our game, but British spirit is much more about honesty and we tend to get up here as quickly as possible.

The Celtic boss is still emotional following Wednesday's outcome and Porto manager Jose Mourinho also felt the force of his fury.

His opposite number labelled the Glasgow side over-physical, but O'Neill quickly jumped to the support of the British game.

He responded: "I've obviously seen the comments seemingly emanating from their coach about us being over-physical which is an over-used term about all British teams until Manchester United made people sit up, but Manchester United can look after themselves.

"The Scottish teams and British teams have always had that reputation even Liverpool, who in the 70s were one of the best teams and won in Europe with monotonous regularity, were called a physical side so that's always been the case."

The former Leicester City boss also believes that Porto's time-wasting and all-round behaviour made a mockery of UEFA's Fair Play campaign.

O'Neill added: "If you go down and you're not injured then you stay down to waste time and I saw these signs around the ground saying fair play."

The Celtic players are still feeling physically and mentally drained after the emotion-sapping experience of midweek.

O'Neill has to pick his stars up for the thrilling climax to the Bank of Scotland Premier League on Sunday.

Celtic must go to win and score goals at Kilmarnock while Rangers, with just a one-goal advantage, take on Dunfermline at Ibrox.

The odds are once again against the men from Parkhead, but the Northern Irishman has declared that they have risen before and they will do so again in time for Sunday.

"They are down at the moment," sighed O'Neill. "But we will have to pick ourselves up for Sunday which we have to do in the next few days.

Playing extra-time was very, very draining, but there's no doubt about it that we have risen before and will come again."