O'Neill hopes Uefa will clear Douglas

Martin O'Neill is likely to appeal to Uefa over the sending off of Robert Douglas in Celtic's 1-0 win over Barcelona.

The dismissal came after a alleged tunnel bust-up at half-time that also saw Thiago Motta shown the red card.

It means that the Scotland number one will be suspended for the Uefa Cup fourth round return leg in two weeks - unless he wins an appeal.

O'Neill said: "Like everything else it is something I would like to have a specific look at tomorrow morning to see if something can come out of it to clear Rab.

"I need to have another chat with him and then see what happens."

Douglas felt that he was not the guilty party and even though O'Neill did not see what happened, he was told by his players that Barcelona had caused the flare up.

"Frank (Rijkaard), like myself, didn't see it but something obviously went on with what people were saying in the tunnel," continued the Celtic boss.

"But Rab Douglas feels exceptionally hard done by because of how it transpired. We don't know if they have evidence.

"Rab felt that he was going to intervene in a situation and he certainly professes his innocence in the fracas.

"I definitely felt that up to then it was a pretty sporting contest and Rab is particularly irate that he got sent off.

"There are also the same noises emanating from our dressing room that it was not Celtic who started the fracas in the tunnel so somebody is right and somebody is wrong."

In contrast, Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard seemed to suggest that Celtic had started the incident even though Javier Saviola also saw red for kicking out later on.

"I can tell you that there was only an incident," he said. "There were some people involved but I don't really think the referee had a clear view of what happened.

"He made some decisions during the break that cost us a player but that was the same for Celtic.

"I didn't have a clear view of it. I think some players were a little bit nervous and I think players were getting on each others' nerves.

"My players lost a little bit of their nerves because they felt that the referee had made some strange decisions. But that doesn't mean they have to overreact.

"Saviola had a bad reaction and there was a bit of aggression on the way to the dressing room but don't say that Barcelona players were involved."

Barcelona missed three glorious first-half chances against a side without a number of top players and they were made to pay by Alan Thompson's great strike.

"This is a wonderful victory for us considering the circumstances," said O'Neill. "It was a great effort by the team.

"To beat Barcelona who are riding high at the minute is a great achievement for us. The players' attitude, ability and determination was tremendous."