{"id":204651,"date":"2025-11-28T11:31:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T11:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/204651\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T11:31:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T11:31:17","slug":"im-in-great-fettle-now-martin-oneill-savours-terrific-final-european-triumph-with-celtic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/204651\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m in great fettle now\u2019 \u2013 Martin O\u2019Neill savours \u2018terrific\u2019 final European triumph with Celtic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">O&#8217;Neill&#8217;s only setback in six games in interim charge so far with Shaun Maloney came against Midtjylland when his side shipped three goals in eight minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">But Celtic bounced back from conceding early at De Kuip as goals from Yang Hyun-jun, Reo Hatate and Benjamin Nygren saw them move on to seven points in the Europa League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">O&#8217;Neill is expected to make way for Frenchman Wilfried Nancy after Sunday&#8217;s league game against Hibernian at Easter Road and he will bow out with another memorable European adventure to add to wins over the likes of Juventus, Liverpool and Barcelona earlier in the century.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The 73-year-old, who led Celtic to the 2003 UEFA Cup final, said: &#8220;It&#8217;s really big, I must admit. I&#8217;m obviously thrilled for the team. There&#8217;s a bit of selfishness attached to it all as well. That was lovely to win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;Just to win away from home, but to win in Feyenoord is just terrific.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Celtic eased to a 3-1 win over Feyenoord\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Celticcc.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Celtic eased to a 3-1 win over Feyenoord<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The former Republic of Ireland manager walked off to the Celtic fans singing his name after a first European away win in four years and first in the Netherlands since O&#8217;Neill masterminded victory over Ajax in 2001.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;Well, I told my two brothers who came to the game, I told them to start the chant, so they must have done so,&#8221; he joked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;Honestly, I&#8217;m in great fettle now. Then I&#8217;ll wake up and just get ready for the Hibs game. But I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">O&#8217;Neill has been taking it game by game since returning in the wake of Brendan Rodgers&#8217; departure but five wins from six matches so far, including a Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Rangers, has exceeded expectations of some at least.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;Hard to say, really, what I thought,&#8221; he said. &#8220;My two daughters were all for going for it, and then my wife said that I&#8217;d probably mess it up. I have been trying to phone her to tell her I hadn&#8217;t messed it up so far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been great. The results are everything. It&#8217;s what you live by, and the results have been terrific.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">O&#8217;Neill added: &#8220;We played really, really well. There was a period in the game, a fairly lengthy period, where we were totally dominant, controlling the ball, and exuded a lot of confidence, which was a lovely thing to see.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;Obviously, going a goal behind as well, we could have crumbled. I was really proud of them. They showed character and resilience but then, when we got the equaliser, confidence just flooded into the side and they played wonderfully well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;I said this to them before the game, you will get a chance to play. They&#8217;re a very fine side, Feyenoord, they are just going through a dip at this moment, but they&#8217;ve got players who can play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;But they will also give you a chance to play, and we took that chance.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"O&#8217;Neill&#8217;s only setback in six games in interim charge so far with Shaun Maloney came against Midtjylland when&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[1187,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-204651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-celtic-fc","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115627103683025970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}