{"id":248169,"date":"2025-11-06T22:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T22:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248169\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T22:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T22:32:09","slug":"vulnerable-celtic-need-a-miracle-worker-as-martin-oneill-magic-wears-off-in-euro-nightmare-5-talking-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248169\/","title":{"rendered":"Vulnerable Celtic need a miracle worker as Martin O’Neill magic wears off in Euro nightmare \u2013 5 talking points"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was another chastening night in Europe as their 73-year-old’s magic didn’t extend to Denmark as Midtjylland caused chaos.<\/p>\n

19:55, 06 Nov 2025Updated 21:25, 06 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

Returning Martin O’Neill<\/a> had to make a mad dash back to his home down south to fetch his passport for Denmark.<\/p>\n

But the stand-in boss must have wondered why he bothered after his Celtic<\/a> charges failed to turn up against Midtjylland.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill admitted he still has sleepless nights thinking about the UEFA Cup Final defeat to Porto back in 2003.<\/p>\n

This one could give him a few new nightmares as Celtic\u2019s severe squad limitations were cruelly exposed by the deadly Danes in the Europa League<\/a><\/p>\n

Celtic fans celebrated their club\u2019s 138th anniversary with an old school banner before kick-off.<\/p>\n

The banners are out as Celtic flop again <\/p>\n

But Midtjylland were proper party poopers as they dished out a birthday bashing to make it four wins out of four in the Europa League.<\/p>\n

The writing was on the wall from the off as the form team in the Europa League made mince meat of O\u2019Neill\u2019s men.<\/p>\n

Two goals in two first half minutes did much of the damage and a third before the break left the Hoops in a heap.<\/p>\n

Reo Hatate slotted a late penalty after fellow sub Callum Osmand<\/a> was tripped but the clash was done and dusted about 60 minutes earlier.<\/p>\n

Yet even that minor moment of joy was short-lived when Hampden League Cup hero Osmand had to be stretchered off before the end.<\/p>\n

It was a bitter blow on a night full of them.<\/p>\n

Celtic\u2019s backline was creaking before it fully cracked. Wide man Mikel Gogorza was posing major problems and he got in behind to tee up former Bournemouth ace Philip Billing to nod in the first and then bagged the second himself with he darted in off the left flank.<\/p>\n

Auston Trusty of Celtic dejected after conceding the third goal<\/p>\n

Red hot hitman Franculino curled in a cracker before the break to leave the Scots needing snookers.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill managed to shore things up after the interval as it became more about damage limitation.<\/p>\n

Yet Midtjylland continued to pick his side apart, with Pedro Bravo, Denil Castillo and Junior Brumado all going close as the shot count soared.<\/p>\n

Kasper Schmeichel managed to keep the score down in his homeland before Osmand showed quick feet to get upended by Martin Erlic to allow Hatate to pull one back with 10 minutes to go before the kid went down in agony, with his side having to see it out with 10 men with all the subs on.<\/p>\n

There was no way to sugar coat another miserable Euro away day for a club that too often goes to pot when the passports come out. Here’s five talking points.<\/p>\n

MARTIN MAGIC WEARS OFF<\/p>\n

It was a dream start for O\u2019Neill with the Old Firm win but this turned into a nightmare.<\/p>\n

There might have been signs of some of his old magic at first but the Celtic legend is no miracle worker.<\/p>\n

The same old vulnerabilities on show for much of this season were brutally exposed again here.<\/p>\n

Martin O’Neill looks on <\/p>\n

Celts couldn\u2019t make the ball stick up top, were weak in midfield and completely battered at the back.<\/p>\n

The scary thing was it could easily have been even worse.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill\u2019s initial bounce brought some feel good factor but this was the kind of night where the sins of the summer came right back into focus. Here’s five talking points.<\/p>\n

NEW BOSS CRUCIAL<\/p>\n

Hoops fans have had a bit of fun with the prospect of O\u2019Neill sticking around a little longer.<\/p>\n

But this woeful showing only underlined why Celts need a new permanent manager \u2013 and pronto.<\/p>\n

The squad is clearly badly lacking and there is going to be a huge amount of work required in the January window to set this out.<\/p>\n

The international break over the next fortnight should be the ideal time to find the right man and give him a chance to assess what he\u2019s got before tooling in the New Year.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill has been the perfect man to stabilise in the short term but it\u2019s more than a patch up needed.<\/p>\n

OUT EUR DEPTH<\/p>\n

When the Hoops crashed out of the Champions League to Kairat, there were some who took crumbs of comfort over the prospect of going deep in the Europa.<\/p>\n

Instead Celts are in danger of sinking without a trace.<\/p>\n

This was always going to be a tough test but it\u2019s now looking difficult to see where the points are coming from to get to the knockout stages.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Feyenoord in Holland up next and there\u2019s Roma and Bologna as well before Utrecht in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

Celtic haven\u2019t won a knockout tie in Europe since O\u2019Neill was in charge 21 years ago.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t look like they\u2019ll get the chance to change that mortifying stat this season.<\/p>\n

SORE ONE FOR RALSTON<\/p>\n

The Hoops defender is as hard as nails and is never scared to go in where it hurts.<\/p>\n

He took a sore on in the thigh against Rangers before hurling himself in the way of the ball at the controversial penalty at Hampden.<\/p>\n

Celtic’s Anthony Ralston <\/p>\n

Ralston was in the wars again in Denmark when he bravely took one in the face from point blank range.<\/p>\n

It left his head spinning and it might have been understandable as the quick-fire first half goals both came when wide man Gogorza got in behind.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t get much help and it was a bruising night for Ralston and the rest of his Hoops pals.<\/p>\n

GREAT DANES<\/p>\n

Midtjylland embarrassed Celts on the pitch but they are also putting the Parkhead club to shame off it.<\/p>\n

The Danish outfit are one of the leading clubs in the continent when it comes to their data led recruitment and it\u2019s allowed them to build a team to play exactly the way they want.<\/p>\n

They are top performing set piece outfit in the Europa League and they\u2019ve been able to pick up top stars without going overboard with transfer fees.<\/p>\n

Their modern Moneyball approach works \u2013 while Celtic\u2019s recruitment process still looks stuck in the dark ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was another chastening night in Europe as their 73-year-old’s magic didn’t extend to Denmark as Midtjylland caused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[45742,23926,2817,35119,12431,2600,59,43738,103666,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-248169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-anthony-ralston","tag-callum-mcgregor","tag-celtic-fc","tag-daizen-maeda","tag-dermot-desmond","tag-europa-league","tag-gb","tag-michael-nicholson","tag-michael-oneill","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}