Celtic Faces Challenges Ahead of Champions League Play-Off

Martin O’Neill admits he wanted Engels to stay and help Celtic through their Champions League play-off, but the midfielder chose not to risk it.

The player, O’Neill explained, “didn't want to play in the matches in case he got injured” before a move. The Celtic manager understands the decision, even if it has left him short for one of the club’s biggest weeks of the season.

Engels gone, replacement race on

Losing a key midfielder on the eve of a Champions League tie is far from ideal, and O’Neill is still scrambling for cover.

“We're still in the process of trying to do that,” he said of finding a replacement. “We haven't been able to get someone in, in time, to do that. But there are a number of players that we're looking at and hopefully we will by the end of the transfer window.”

The clock is ticking. The tie won’t wait, and neither will the market.

For O’Neill, though, the real prize is not the balance sheet. The prestige of reaching the Champions League group stage matters more to him than the money it pours into the club. The financial boost would help, of course – he pointed out it would allow Celtic to attract more players before the league phase – but the lure is the competition itself.

Hatate interest and a route back

Reo Hatate’s future hovers in the background of it all. O’Neill confirmed there has been interest in the midfielder.

“But I don't think there's been anything definitive,” he said. “That may well happen in the next week.”

If a bid lands and Hatate wants to go, that’s one story. If he stays, O’Neill is more than willing to build around him again. The Irishman would have no issue with Hatate remaining at Celtic Park and fighting to rediscover the form that made him “one of best midfielders in Scotland” two seasons ago.

For a squad in transition, a rejuvenated Hatate would feel like a new signing.

LASK threat looms large

Before any of that is resolved, Celtic must deal with the Austrian champions. O’Neill has watched LASK closely. He does not underestimate them.

He called them a “very fine side” and warned the tie will be “very, very difficult” for Celtic. The club has had them scouted “on numerous occasions” and sent people to watch them live.

The verdict? They are quick, dangerous, and powerful.

“They are very fast up front as well, lots of good players on the side. And they're very, very strong. Physically strong as well,” O’Neill said.

A first-leg advantage at home would be “lovely”, he admitted, but he refused to frame it as decisive. If Celtic don’t win in Glasgow, he insisted, it is not “the end of the world” before the return in Austria.

What matters to him is the mindset.

Celtic, he said, are “ready for the challenge”, and now the responsibility lies inside the dressing room. “It's up to the players now as much as anything else. I think the quality that we brought in will bear fruit during the course of the season.”

O’Neill’s Champions League return

For O’Neill personally, this week carries a different kind of weight. At 74, he is back on the brink of the Champions League for the first time in more than 20 years.

“I didn't think last September or October I'd be sitting here thinking about a Champions League game,” he admitted. “If I was, I'd certainly be watching it on TV.”

Instead, he is in the dugout again, chasing nights under the lights that defined an earlier era of his Celtic reign.

“There are challenges in this Champions League. You could get nothing else but excited about it, which is fantastic, especially at my age,” he said.

Old rivalry on the horizon

Beyond Europe, the domestic battles keep lining up. Celtic have been drawn away to Rangers in the League Cup quarter-finals, another huge fixture dropped into an already demanding schedule.

O’Neill won’t let his players look that far ahead yet.

“I'm looking forward to it when it comes to it,” he said. “Naturally, the concentration is totally in these two games. But it is what it is. We're drawn away from home again.”

First, LASK. Then Austria. Then, perhaps, the Champions League proper and an early trip across the city to face Rangers.

For O’Neill and Celtic, the next few weeks won’t just shape a season. They could define what this new chapter looks like.