{"id":397739,"date":"2026-01-30T00:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/397739\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:02:08","slug":"oneill-delight-as-celtic-ease-to-europa-league-playoff-with-win-over-utrecht-europa-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/397739\/","title":{"rendered":"O\u2019Neill delight as Celtic ease to Europa League playoff with win over Utrecht | Europa League"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was only briefly a little more fraught than it needed to be and looked as if it would be for Celtic<\/a>. Martin O\u2019Neill can focus on the most important factor in that he has guided the Scottish champions into the Europa league\u2019s playoff phase. Job done, once again, for the effervescent O\u2019Neill. Ferencvaros or Stuttgart lie in wait after Celtic closed in 21st place.<\/p>\n

Celtic were fully deserving of their win in what unexpectedly developed into an entertaining clash with Utrecht. O\u2019Neill, thought to be a managerial yesterday\u2019s man not so long ago, continues to do his bit for 70-somethings everywhere. The Irishman will know Celtic must improve to make meaningful, further progress in this competition but such detail can wait. Even continuation in the Europa League<\/a> had looked a long shot at one point. Utrecht will be delighted to see the back of a tournament which yielded just a single point from eight grisly fixtures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think over the past couple of weeks we have shown great resilience,\u201d said O\u2019Neill. \u201cI am delighted with the result. The performance, for the most part, was terrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

This occasion marked more than two decades since O\u2019Neill last managed Celtic in a home European game. Milan were the visitors for a scoreless draw then, in a period when Celtic jousted with the best on the continent. The intervening years have not been particularly kind to Celtic in European context but in O\u2019Neill they have a manager who relishes foreign forays. Far from seeing progression to the knockout stage as a distraction from a domestic title race, he will relish the challenge.<\/p>\n

Here began what has scope to be a hugely significant few days for Celtic. Victories over Utrecht<\/a> and Falkirk, coupled with making headway in the transfer market, would raise confidence among supporters who have been unconvinced by much of the campaign so far. The good news to begin with was that Utrecht, already eliminated from this competition and treading water in their domestic league, looked hugely favourable opposition.<\/p>\n

That notion was proven to be correct rather quickly. It remains to be seen whether Benjamin Nygren will emerge as a strong Celtic player but the midfielder does have a useful knack of scoring goals. He converted a rare, right-foot cross from Kieran Tierney to send Celtic in front. Utrecht decided it was wise to leave Nygren in splendid isolation, six yards from their goal as Celtic completed a short corner routine.<\/p>\n

Arne Engels scores Celtic\u2019s third goal from the penalty spot after just 19 minutes. Photograph: Russell Cheyne\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The second for Celtic was even more disastrous from the visitors. The goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas \u2013 once and forgettably of this parish \u2013 played the ball directly to the feet of the onrushing Daizen Maeda. In his rush to clear Maeda\u2019s ball across goal, the Utrecht captain Nick Viergever sent the ball into his own net.<\/p>\n

Any sense Utrecht\u2019s evening could not get any worse, and rapidly, was wrong. The referee, Mohammad Al-Emara, was sent to the monitor to assess a potential handball by Dani de Wit at a Tierney cross. The Finn harshly determined De Wit was guilty, affording Celtic a penalty which Arne Engels cracked home. Celtic have not enjoyed many blissfully straightforward fixtures in this campaign, so were entitled to revel in this one. Utrecht\u2019s supporters, realising the ludicrous nature of their team\u2019s display, took to cheering when three passes were strung together.<\/p>\n

Some further relief did arrive for those fans before the break. De Wit curled beyond the motionless Kasper Schmeichel from 20 yards to reduce the deficit. It was a smart finish, not at all in keeping with anything the Dutch side had offered until that point.<\/p>\n

Celtic\u2019s second half challenge was to reduce this to a non-event. As Adrian Blake flashed the ball across the front of Schmeichel\u2019s goal after three minutes of the restart, a warning had been served.<\/p>\n

It was Blake\u2019s next intervention which triggered panic in the stands. A low shot from 25 yards should not have caused Schmeichel a particular problem yet the Dane was unable to even palm it away. His shortcomings have been an ominous feature of Celtic\u2019s recent history. O\u2019Neill later admitted his team were \u201cflagging\u201d.<\/p>\n

Celtic now needed breathing space. It arrived via an unlikely source, Auston Trusty heading an Engels corner high into the Utrecht net. It is a funny old game; on Sunday, Trusty\u2019s red card at Tynecastle helped Hearts to win a point against Celtic. Now, O\u2019Neill had cause to be hugely grateful to his centre-back.<\/p>\n

Trusty\u2019s header extinguished Utrecht\u2019s hope. Amid a raft of substitutions, the game fizzled out in a manner which suited Celtic just fine. O\u2019Neill does not expect to be in office beyond May. If a Celtic upturn in fortunes under his watch continues, it will become reasonable to ask why that should be the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This was only briefly a little more fraught than it needed to be and looked as if it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-397739","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\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397739","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=397739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}