Celtic Aims to Recover After Defeat to Rangers

Martin O'Neill has promised Celtic will “get ourselves right” as the Scottish champions try to shake off the sting of their bruising 3-0 defeat to Rangers and reset their season in Europe.

The Ibrox loss, timid and one-sided in a fixture where Celtic demand fight above all else, has triggered the familiar storm around Parkhead. The response starts on Thursday, when Hungarian side Ferencvaros visit Glasgow in the Europa League. Then comes Rangers again, back across the city in the Premiership on Sunday. Two games. One angry support. Very little margin for error.

“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,” O'Neill said on Wednesday, facing the fallout head-on before training.

“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 manner of Sunday’s Old Firm defeat has cut deep. Celtic looked passive, second-best in every area, and allowed their greatest rivals to dictate the tempo in a derby that rarely forgives hesitation. O'Neill did not try to sugarcoat it.

“We were disappointed ourselves, we disappointed the fans and now we just have to rise to the occasion,” he said.

He knows what that means in this city. Perform, or feel the heat. At 74 and in his second full-time spell in the Celtic dugout, O’Neill has lived through enough Glasgow crises to recognise the pattern. The noise is loud now, but he trusts his squad to respond.

“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.”

The first step comes in Europe, where Celtic will try to turn anger into energy. Ferencvaros, seasoned continental campaigners, offer no soft landing. Yet the real emotional charge sits with what follows: a rematch with Rangers at Parkhead, the kind of occasion that can either steady a season or send it spinning.

Part of Sunday’s story lay in Celtic’s inexperience in that unique derby cauldron. Five of O’Neill’s starting XI were tasting an Old Firm clash for the first time. They found out quickly.

“I think it was an eye opener to some of the newer lads,” O'Neill admitted. “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 is the real test now. Not just tactics or shape, but temperament. Who can handle the ferocity, the scrutiny, the expectation that comes with wearing green and white when Rangers are on the other side of the halfway line?

The answers will start to emerge over the next four days, under the lights of Europe and in the raw daylight of another derby. Celtic have been wounded. Now they have to show whether this was a stumble — or the start of something far more troubling.