Shakhtar report confirms O'Neill fears

Martin O’Neill has revealed that his chief scout reported back this week with the information he had been fearing.

The Celtic manager watched his players lose their opening Champions League Group F game with Barcelona on Tuesday.

As a result, his side are playing catch-up with a daunting showdown with AC Milan in the San Siro first up.

Celtic then face a trip to the Ukraine where many were under the impression that Shakhtar Donetsk would be the group’s whipping boys – but not according to scout Tom O’Neill.

The manager explained: “Tom O’Neill was at the game with Milan and he told me that Shakhtar had absolutely blasted them for half-an-hour.

“They could have been out of sight but to befit a team that won the competition two seasons ago, Milan gained a wee bit of composure and the sending off has helped them.

“Milan got the late winner but Tom said that for 30 minutes of the game Shakhtar were absolutely awesome.”

Despite their opening defeat and the size of the task ahead, O’Neill is still optimistic that his side can pull off a major surprise and go through to the knock-out stages.

He said: “I have not given up any hope at all.

“We were beaten in the game and we were beaten at home but we have five matches now and we know how difficult it is.

“We’ve got to try and get something from each of the games.

“I know it seems a fairly tall order but we will have to play very well. It is possible and we’ve not lost hope.”

O’Neill, who takes his side to Hibernian tomorrow as Bank of Scotland Premier League action resumes, took Juninho off against Barcelona but he is backing the Brazilian to be his Deco as he settles into his new surroundings.

“When he gets properly fit he will be an asset,” said O’Neill.

“He’s come in quite late and I thought that he was playing 20-odd minutes on sheer adrenalin against Rangers.

“It was a terrific debut for him but then that leaves you and it depends what your fitness is.

“It will take a wee bit of time but I believe he will become a top player for us.

“He is pretty much a free spirit but I would like him to be attacking teams in the final third of the field.

“It is up to us to get him there rather than coming back to receive throw-ins in the first third of the field.

“We want him to do a Deco. They were telling Deco not to worry about things at the back.

“We have one of those players that can go and play. We have players who can do something special and that can have an extra couple of seconds on the ball without panicking.”

O’Neill is convinced that his players will not crumble like Rangers did last season after a bad defeat in Europe.

“We always knew we were in a difficult group,” he said.

“Rangers started brilliantly last season and beat Stuttgart and then should have won in Panathinaikos and then couldn’t get a result after that.”