Martin O’Neill confident Celtic will bounce back from Old Firm humiliation

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill reacts on the touchline as Rangers destroy the Hoops 3-0 in the Scottish League Cup quarter-final. Pic: Steve Welsh/PA Wire

Martin O’Neill vowed Celtic “will get ourselves right” after being pilloried following Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup humbling by Rangers.

The Hoops are bidding to bounce back from a meek 3-0 derby defeat at Ibrox when they host Ferencvaros in their Europa League opener on Thursday before welcoming Gers for a William Hill Premiership rematch on Sunday.

O’Neill believes his team have shown enough under his charge over the past 11 months or so to suggest they will conjure a positive response in their last two matches before a three-week international break.

“Every game that Celtic lose, there’s a crisis, and of course even bigger if you lose to Rangers, so we’ve done enough talking about it,” he said when asked how his squad have handled Sunday’s setback internally.

“Our players are disappointed with the performance, we could have done better, I think we accept that, and we just apply ourselves now again for the league fixtures.

“We were disappointed ourselves, we disappointed the fans and now we just have to rise to the occasion.

“We’ve got two matches in which to do so before the break. Two big games for us, Ferencvaros will not be easy, but we’ve done it before, we’ll get ourselves right.” Five of O’Neill’s starting XI were playing in an Old Firm match for the first time on Sunday and O’Neill said: “I think it was an eye opener to some of the newer lads.

“We’ve got to find out about players, about whether they’re capable of dealing with these games. Hopefully, over the course of time, that they will be.” Asked if he and his staff had reflected on their tactics and team selection for Sunday’s match, O’Neill, whose side have won their last 13 league matches stretching back to the start of April, bristled: “Of course. There’s a lot of questions on that from those outside.

“It’s strange that you’re never asked about team selection or tactics when you win the games.

“We’ve been doing a fair amount of winning domestically now for quite some considerable time. We’ve won all our league games so far. It’s amazing the number of times that you’re not questioned when you’ve won.” Camilo Duran missed training on Wednesday as he was in London regarding a visa issue ahead of his upcoming involvement with Colombia, but O’Neill expects him to be available for Ferencvaros.

The manager is likely to make “a few changes” given the heavy fixture load but stressed that he is determined to get off to a winning start.

“We had a real struggle last year to qualify because our opening four games didn’t yield enough points, so it was really hard for us,” said O’Neill.

“We had to go and win in Feyenoord and get a result in Bologna and eventually we got through. That might end up being the same, I don’t know, but I don’t want it to be. I want to try and get some points early on the board.”