{"id":163082,"date":"2025-11-27T20:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T20:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/163082\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T20:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T20:38:08","slug":"oneill-leads-celtic-to-victory-in-sweet-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/163082\/","title":{"rendered":"O&#8217;Neill leads Celtic to victory in sweet goodbye"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Martin O&#8217;Neill wrote a memorable final postscript in his history with Celtic in Europe as the interim manager led his team to a 3-1 win over Feyenoord.<\/p>\n<p>Goals from Yang Hyun-jun and Reo Hatate saw Celtic come from behind before half-time and substitute Benjamin Nygren added a late third as the Scottish champions kick-started their Europa League campaign.<\/p>\n<p>It was their first away win in Europe since victory over Ferencvaros under Ange Postecoglou four years ago and first in the Netherlands since a 3-1 win over Ajax in O&#8217;Neill&#8217;s maiden Champions League qualifier in charge in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Neill went on to lead Celtic to the 2003 UEFA Cup final and wins over the likes of Juventus, Liverpool and Barcelona during five years in charge.<\/p>\n<p>The 73-year-old is expected to make way for Wilfried Nancy before Roma visit Celtic Park on 11 December and will leave them with a platform to enjoy another run in the competition. The Hoops now have seven points and also play Bologna and Utrecht in the league phase.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Reo Hatate of Celtic after scoring against Feyenoord in Europa League, November 2025 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/00238b4a-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nReo Hatate was on the mark<\/p>\n<p>Celtic started with Luke McCowan and Yang either side of Daizen Maeda in their front three and the former was guilty of an extraordinary early miss, hitting the bar from a yard out after an Arne Engels corner.<\/p>\n<p>The offside flag went up but VAR might have overturned that decision as it appeared the flick-on came from a Feyenoord player.<\/p>\n<p>Celtic were caught out by a ball over the top in the 11th minute with centre-back Auston Trusty on his way back from a solo run deep into the Feyenoord half. Sem Steijn laid the ball off for Ayase Ueda to finish.<\/p>\n<p>The goal sparked a flurry of red flares flying in from outside De Kuip, which had a stand closed as UEFA punishment for fireworks use.<\/p>\n<p>The visitors were soon in trouble following a cross but Leo Sauer shot over from six yards.<\/p>\n<p>Celtic responded but McCowan could not control Yang&#8217;s cross.<\/p>\n<p>The former Dundee player made up for his missed chances by playing a key role in Celtic&#8217;s 31st-minute equaliser.<\/p>\n<p>His lofted pass found Hatate, who hooked the ball to the far post where Yang netted from close range.<\/p>\n<p>Celtic had two major let-offs before going ahead. They were firstly caught on the break, this time with Republic of Ireland defender Liam Scales out of position but Ueda&#8217;s shot was saved by Kasper Schmeichel.<\/p>\n<p>Another Ueda shot appeared to hit the hand of Callum McGregor but penalty appeals were waved away.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Celtic interim manager Martin O'Neill at full time during a UEFA Europa League 2025\/26 League Phase MD5 match between Feyenoord and Celtic at De Kuip, on November 27, 2025, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/00238b6b-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nMartin O&#8217;Neill salutes the fans<\/p>\n<p>Celtic profited from pressing Feyenoord back to their goalkeeper two minutes before half-time when Maeda charged down Timon Wellenreuther&#8217;s attempted pass and the ball broke for Hatate, who finished first time from 22 yards.<\/p>\n<p>With Feyenoord&#8217;s most vocal fans locked out and Celtic in front, the travelling fans were making all the noise and their team controlled the opening stages of the second half.<\/p>\n<p>Engels had a free-kick well saved before the hosts forced some sustained pressure, hitting the bar through Gaoussou Diarra&#8217;s header.<\/p>\n<p>The home side were growing increasingly confident until some positive play from a limping Colby Donovan set up the 82nd-minute clincher.<\/p>\n<p>Maeda once again disrupted Wellenreuther as the keeper tried to collect the right-back&#8217;s low cross and the ball broke for Nygren, who fired in off the bar from eight yards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin O&#8217;Neill wrote a memorable final postscript in his history with Celtic in Europe as the interim manager&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-163082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}