Celtic see off Hibs but injury worries ahead of Barca clash
The Celtic manager watched his side warm up for the game with a superb 4-0 victory over Hibernian at Easter Road yesterday thank to two goals apiece from Didier Agathe and Henrik Larsson which again gave his side a 19-point lead over Rangers.
His threadbare side was lacking injured quartet Chris Sutton, Stanislav Varga, Alan Thompson and Joos Valgaeren which forced him to hand Stephen McManus his senior debut.
O'Neill is concerned with Robert Douglas sweating on his appeal against his ban, Bobo Balde definitely suspended and mounting injury problems. But he is hopeful that all of them will recover in time for the trip to Spain and that Paul Lambert and Agathe will also be fit after taking knocks against Bobby Williamson's indisciplined youngsters at Easter Road.
"Having players injured was a concern," said O'Neill. "But out of today's game we might have come out okay. Paul Lambert has a dead leg and he doesn't know how bad he is. He was struggling at half-time but he wanted to continue.
"He didn't feel too bad after half-time and we made the other substitutions and then it was beginning to become a problem for him.
"Stan Varga and Alan Thompson weren't fit for today and obviously both have a great mental attitude to it and want to play against Barcelona. We'll see how they get on.
"It's Alan's hamstring but he wants to play. I would have given no chance to Chris a few days ago but he has improved in the last couple of days but we will see. We will give him every possible chance to recover. It's not as if he needs a load of games because he is quite fit."
"The defence is certainly a problem with Bobo being out of the side. John Kennedy did fine but Joos didn't play today and is suffering the after-effects of the Rangers game. Didier is a wee bit sore but he'll have to be okay."
O'Neill is philosophical about the prospect of Celtic going into the Barca game without several key players. "It might be difficult but it's the way it goes," he said.
"The way Barcelona are playing at the moment you would like to have all your players fit. If you haven't got them you have to try and adjust."
Agathe was fortunate to escape from Tom McManus's terrible tackle reasonably unscathed but the Hibernian youngster was booked before inevitably they were reduced to 10 men as Jonathan Baillie was dismissed for a head-butt on Craig Beattie.
: Andersson, Smith, Whittaker, Edge, Baillie, Caldwell, Nicol, Reid (Riordan 68), Scott Brown, Dobbie (Zambernardi 73), McManus.
: Marshall, McNamara, Balde, Kennedy, McManus, Agathe, Lennon (Mjallby 63), Lambert (Smith 68), Pearson, Larsson (Beattie 63), Petrov.
: D McDonald (Scotland).
Burton O'Brien's 88th-minute strike delivered all three points for Livingston and continued their dominance over beleaguered Aberdeen yesterday.
The Dons had trailed for much of the game after Colin McMenamin scored early on but thought they had done enough to avoid defeat when, after dominating for most of the second half, Leigh Hinds popped up to equalise with four minutes left.
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