“It’s nice to be involved in European football,” Martin O’Neill

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The Celtic Star

·26 de novembro de 2025

“It’s nice to be involved in European football,” Martin O’Neill

Martin O’Neill delivered his penultimate media conference as interim Celtic manager this evening at Feyenoord’ iconic De Kuip arena in Rotterdam ahead of match-day five in the Europa League tomorrow evening. Here’s what Martin had to say…

General view outside the stadium prior to the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD2 match between Feyenoord and Aston Villa FC at De Kuip on October 02, 2025 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Q: So, Feyenoord, this is what you’re here to talk about tonight. It’s a huge match for the club, isn’t it? I presume you’ll be wanting to ensure that when you do depart, you’ll have left having picked up three points here?

Vídeos OneFootball

Martin O’Neill: “Oh yeah, just as easy as that. Very, very simple. You’re joking, aren’t you? Well, I mean, we’ve got to try and win the game, of course. But it’s Feyenoord we’re playing, so it’ll be pretty difficult.

Reo Hatate of Celtic FC during the UEFA Champions League match between Feyenoord and Celtic FC at Feyenoord Stadium de Kuip on September 19, 2023 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. ANP Hollandse Hoogte JEROEN PUTMANS

Q: They’ve lost their last three matches. Does that give you confidence that you can inflict something on them?

Martin O’Neill: “I don’t think confidence will come from nothing to do with what they will do or can’t do or will do. It comes from their own. We’ve picked up plenty of confidence ourselves. It was a really tough match against Midtjylland. I hope we’ve made some sort of progress since then, certainly domestically. I’m just looking forward to tomorrow, I think that going in with confidence anyway. We didn’t play particularly brilliantly against St Mirren, but we won the game. And winning always gives you some confidence as well. So we’re going to try our might tomorrow, but it’ll be a difficult match.”

Callum McGregor of Celtic FC during the UEFA Champions League match between Feyenoord and Celtic FC at Feyenoord Stadium de Kuip on September 19, 2023 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. ANP JEROEN PUTMANS Group E – UEFA Champions League 2023/2024 VI ANP Sport/JeroenPutmans IV

Q: Huge moment for you at the end of the game. Does that give the squad some confidence and belief?

Martin O’Neill: “The goal was great. I thought we improved in the second half, which we still didn’t create enough during the course of the game. It was a fantastic goal. I thought the camaraderie with the team, there’s a good spirit among the players. All of those particular things are very, very important. It’s a difficult game. We’re playing away from home in the Europa League against a side that is very talented. They lost the game at the weekend. I watched the game back and they could have been 4-0 up in the first 20 minutes of the match before NEC score. So it was one of those. Again, it’s getting back to the point of what we’re trying to do ourselves as much as possible. If we can just be as mentally strong as we have been domestically in the last few weeks, then that will help.”

Celtic interim manager Martin O’Neill during the Premier League match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on November 09, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: You’ve had many special European nights as Celtic manager in the past. If this is to be your last European game, will this be one to savour?

Martin O’Neill: “I’ll let you know tomorrow evening. Again, sometimes I think if it’s going to be your last one, which it will be, you’d like it to be at Celtic Park, but it’s away here. Again, it’s nice to be involved in European football, but I think that talking about how difficult the game was in Midtjyland, we’ve got work to do and I think we know that as a team and as a club.”

Q: What do you need to see different from your team tomorrow night to get a result that you maybe didn’t see at the weekend?

Martin O’Neill: “I just thought we were pretty passive in the first half of the game. I thought we exerted more energy in the second half and started to apply more pressure to St Mirren. I thought they were always dangerous themselves and we did get a little bit of luck with the offside decision. That was good from our viewpoint. Just to win it in the manner in which we did, I think that gives us a big boost.”

Kelechi Iheanacho. Dundee v Celtic. 19 October 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: How’s the squad looking injury-wise? Has Kelechi Iheanacho travelled?

Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, they’ve travelled. We’ll see, it’s the amount of work that they haven’t really done that would be something that I would consider over the course of the next 24 hours.”

Q: Is that just a possibility then that you could have that option?

Martin O’Neill: “That would be great. It’s something that we haven’t had so that would be a major plus. I think in the weeks going forward now, that’s something that players can stay injury-free. That would be terrific. We haven’t had the use of a number of players, obviously long-term injuries and quality players. But that’s the nature of the game.”

Red Star Belgrade 1-1 Celtic.Kelechi Iheanacho of Celtic celebrates his goal Crvena zvezda v Celtic, UEFA Europa League, Football, Rajko Mitic Stadium, Belgrade, Serbia – 24 Sep 2025Belgrade Rajko Mitic Stadium Serbia Photo Nikola Krstic Shutterstock

Q: Would Kelechi offer you something that you’ve maybe not had at your disposal over the past few games?

Martin O’Neill: “I think the short answer would be yes, but we’re looking for fit people. We’ll see.

Q: You actually had a fabulous result in this country in your first spell at Celtic, memorably against Ajax. Have you spoken, Martin, to the players about that night in Amsterdam? I think that was the last time you were here as a manager.

Martin O’Neill: “I’m not even sure this young man (Auston Trusty) was born then, so what’s the point in talking about it? That’s in the past, it was a great night for us. I remember we got through, but we played brilliant at that evening, that’s a long, long time ago. A long time ago. And young lads have no interest in what happened in my life.

Martin O’Neill interim manager of Celtic Midtjylland vs Celtic, UEFA Europa League, Group Stage, Football, MCH Arena, Herning, Denmark – 06 November 2025Herning MCH Arena Denmark Photo Michael Zemanek Shutterstock IMAGO

Q: Have you played here?

Martin O’Neill: “No. It’s one of these old stadiums, but the atmosphere is fabulous. It’s a fantastic atmosphere, there’s no question about it. Really, really good. There’s something pretty special about the stadium.”

Q: Do you feel there’s a good historical link with the clubs earlier on? We were speaking to Robin Van Hersey, he was talking about the Wim Jansen connection between Feyenoord and Celtic at the 1970 European Cup final as well.

Martin O’Neill: “The 1970 European Cup final was a massive disappointment to us, because we had beaten Leeds in the semi-final, and we were going to expect to win, and Feyenoord come up and win again. So, yeah, it has history attached to it. I just looked outside as I’m coming in, seeing some of the great, great names of world football just attached to that wall. Yeah, there’s something special about this game.”

Here’s Martin’s media conference from De Kuip…

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