O'Neill encouraged by Bayern problems

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill believes it will take a “monumental effort” for his side to get anything from Wednesday night’s Champions League clash at Bayern Munich.

O’Neill is desperate for his men to get their Group campaign off to a positive start and will be encouraged by Bayern’s current problems.

Ottmar Hitzfeld’s side have been having their problems through injuries and loss of form, with Sebastian Deisler, Alexander Zickler and Jens Jeremies definitely out, Michael Ballack, Willy Sagnol, Claudio Pizarro, Ze Roberto and Bastian Schweinsteiger struggling.

They also crashed to a 3-2 defeat to WfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday – but O’Neill claimed his players still needed to improve on last season’s stunning away form en route to the UEFA Cup if they are to compound the misery on their opponents.

He explained: “We are playing one of the premier sides in European football so it’s going to take a monumental effort to get something from the game.

“I think that our away record last season certainly stands up to decent inspection and it was terrific.

“We may need all of that and more to get something from the game tomorrow night.

“We were drawn at home first almost every single time in the UEFA Cup last season and while we weren’t always at our best at Celtic Park we still remained unbeaten and came through games that were exceptionally difficult away from home.”

Bayern, last season’s third-favourites to win the Champions League, never won a game after starting their campaign with a defeat to Deportivo La Coruna.

But the Celtic boss still rates them as a European superpower and fears that his side, Anderlecht and Lyon could bear the brunt of their angry backlash.

O’Neill continued: “They’re record over the years and in recent years has been terrific.

“You are looking at something that is well established and obviously very well run. Last season they had a disappointment not qualifying from the the first group stages.

“I know that they want to rectify that because they’ve been use to getting to the latter stages of the competition so their record is well established.

“We are here facing the might of Bayern Munich tomorrow night and we are looking forward to it because it is in the Champions League, but it is one that we couldn’t take lightly.

“Bayern Munich took their eye off proceedings last season and didn’t qualify for the group stages and that was a big shock to everyone in European football.

“The fact that they will be totally focused will be bad news for the rest of the group, but we’ll go strongly and have some very good players.

“We will be positive and go to attack and defend as well as we can when we have to. The players are looking forward to the game and so am I absolutely.”

Celtic are reeling from injuries to Johan Mjallby, Joos Valgaeren, Ulrik Laursen, Stephen Crainey, Paul Lambert and Steve Guppy.

That could see on-loan defender Michael Gray drafted in or even Belgium international Valgaeren handed a place among the substitutes – but O’Neill is not too concerned.

“It’s not ideal but it’s not a crisis as we’ve got players,” he said.

“I don’t have to worry about that, it’s part of the game. In four months’ time nobody will remember what sort of side actually went out onto the field of play.

“We’ve got a few problems and I would like more defenders available to me, but that’s the way it goes and we’ll adjust accordingly and try and sort it out.

“Even if we had everybody available we might not win and if we are missing a couple of defenders you never know what we might just do.”