Celtic Aims to Bounce Back After Old Firm Defeat

Martin O'Neill has vowed Celtic “will get ourselves right” as they try to shake off the sting of Sunday’s bruising Old Firm defeat and relaunch their season in Europe.

The Scottish champions were outplayed and outmuscled in a 3-0 Scottish League Cup loss to Rangers at Ibrox, a result that has triggered the familiar storm of criticism that follows any Celtic setback – and a full-blown crisis narrative when it comes against their greatest rivals.

Now they must respond. Quickly.

From derby damage to Europa duty

Celtic open their Europa League campaign on Thursday at Parkhead against Hungarian side Ferencvaros, with O’Neill demanding a reaction rather than more soul-searching.

“Every game that Celtic lose, there's a crisis, and of course even bigger if you lose to Rangers, so we've done enough talking about it,” he said on Wednesday.

“Our players are disappointed with the performance, we could have done better, I think we accept that, and we just apply ourselves now again for the league fixtures.”

The timing is unforgiving. Ferencvaros arrive first, then Rangers again, this time in the Scottish Premiership at Celtic Park on Sunday. Two games. One furious fanbase. Little margin for error.

O’Neill, back in his second full-time spell in charge, did not try to sugar-coat what happened at Ibrox.

“We were disappointed ourselves, we disappointed the fans and now we just have to rise to the occasion,” he admitted. “We've got two matches in which to do so before the break. Two big games for us, Ferencvaros will not be easy, but we've done it before, we'll get ourselves right.”

Old Firm baptism for new faces

Five of O’Neill’s starting XI were tasting an Old Firm derby for the first time on Sunday. They discovered, brutally, what that fixture demands.

“I think it was an eye opener to some of the newer lads,” the 74-year-old said. “We've got to find out about players, about whether they're capable of dealing with these games. Hopefully, over the course of time, they will be.”

That process of finding out starts immediately. Ferencvaros under the lights, Rangers in a rematch three days later. For O’Neill and his players, the response now will say as much about this Celtic side as the defeat that sparked the crisis talk.