Larsson now the enemy, says O’Neill
The Hoops’ record-breaking goalscorer returns to his much-loved Parkhead stage for the first time since quitting for Barcelona in the summer in what will be an emotional night.
But O’Neill felt it necessary to remind the Parkhead faithful that the Swedish striker is now strictly the enemy and they should not make life any easier for him.
The Irishman said: “He will be afforded an excellent reception after what he did here and he should be applauded when he comes out on to the pitch.
“But I wouldn’t like them to applaud him every single time he touches the ball.
“The crowd have got to have a reality check and he is now playing for the opposition.
“I’m sure that if he gets in front of goal he won’t slide the ball wide.”
O’Neill expects Larsson to start the game after scoring in the weekend victory over Sevilla at the weekend.
There are suggestions that he has picked up an injury, and Frank Rijkaard has said that he could leave him out as his presence would fire up the home crowd even more.
But the Celtic boss is preparing his players to come up against Larsson, who he believes is making a mockery of the critics who doubted he could score at the very top level of club football.
“He is absolutely certain to start,” smirked O’Neill.
“I don’t want to pick Frank Rijkaard’s team for him, but he scored a wonderful goal on Saturday.
“There were people down south (in England) that were saying that Henrik would only score goals in the SPL, but he has scored in the Spanish league and for Sweden with monotonous regularity and people down south might have to write other things.
“He is a quality player and another 23-year-old Henrik Larsson would cost £25 million in today’s transfer market.” However, O’Neill believes Barcelona would be a formidable outfit, even without Larsson.
“Even if Henrik was playing in our team tomorrow we would find it exceptionally difficult,” added the Celtic chief.
O’Neill admits that Barcelona “should win” the battles at Parkhead and the Nou Camp after splashing out £45m on players including Deco, Ludovic Giuly, Edmilson and Samuel Eto’o over the summer.
Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho is also pushing for a return to action after injury, which is frightening news for the Scottish champions.
“They should win here and away,” conceded O’Neill.
“They have signed Deco (from Porto) who has just won the Champions League on top of the UEFA Cup and he is a top-class player.
“They also have arguably the best player in the world at this moment in Ronaldinho, so we will have our work cut out. We will be under pressure during the course of the game and we will try and put them under pressure.
“Some of their own players have said that they are looking to win La Liga and the Champions League.
“We have not be able to compete in that market but that doesn’t mean on the night we can’t do something about it.”
Rijkaard insisted that Parkhead was the last place his players wanted to go for their group opener, but O’Neill joked: “Can you imagine Ronaldinho choking here tomorrow when he plays in front of 85,000 people himself every couple of weeks.”
Barcelona are certain to be fired up for revenge in Group F which also includes AC Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk in a group the Celtic boss feels is the toughest of them all.
But O’Neill is still quietly confident his side can cause a surprise and finally making the latter stages.
He concluded: “We are going to go and play ourselves, and go and attack when possible and we have to defend very well.
“We have qualified for the competition so let’s go and enjoy it.
“This is the toughest group possible, but we have beaten some big teams here in the last couple of seasons.”
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