Martin O’Neill's Return to Champions League Glory with Celtic

Martin O’Neill stood on the touchline at Celtic Park on Tuesday night, chasing a competition he last tasted when some of his players were not yet born. Twenty-two years on from his previous Champions League campaign, he is now one commanding performance away from stepping back into that arena.

Back then, it was a goalless draw with AC Milan in the group stage in 2004. Now, at 74, after a spell in hospital earlier this month for what the club called a “small procedure”, he has come back to lead Celtic to an emphatic play-off first-leg win over Austrian champions LASK. The years have passed. The authority has not.

He missed a routine Scottish Premiership victory at Kilmarnock while he recovered, but his presence on this stage was unmistakable. O’Neill still sets the tone, still makes the big calls. The daily grind on the training pitch belongs to Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham. The big-picture thinking, the shaping of a team, remains his domain.

The result against LASK underlined it. The visitors arrived in Glasgow’s east end in strong domestic form and did not shrink from the occasion. They carved out chances, asked questions, hinted at a contest that might stretch Celtic’s resolve.

Then the home side found another gear.

Benjamin Nygren lit the night up first, cutting across the ball and thundering his finish into the top corner. One swing, one statement. Celtic Park roared, and LASK suddenly looked smaller against the noise.

The pressure didn’t ease. Just before half-time, summer signing Camilo Duran produced the kind of moment that makes a European tie feel like a turning point. The Colombian forward met a dropping ball with a crisp, controlled volley, sending it flashing into the net. Technique, timing, and a little bit of audacity. Two-nil, and Celtic were flying.

LASK tried to regroup after the break, but the tie had tilted. Celtic sensed it, O’Neill sensed it, and the third goal carried that ruthless edge his best sides have always shown. Nygren turned provider this time, slipping Duran in, and the striker smashed in his second of the night. Three goals, all emphatic, all carrying the stamp of a team playing with clarity and conviction.

From the outside, it is easy to see the fireworks. From the inside, O’Neill insists the job is only half-done. He has never been one for laps of honour in August. He knows a second leg in Europe can turn quickly, and he was quick to cool any talk of the tie being over.

Yet this victory still feels like another remarkable chapter in a career that had appeared to be closing. When Brendan Rodgers resigned last October, Celtic turned to O’Neill as a short-term fix, a steadying hand. He ended up delivering far more than that. Across two interim spells, he pieced together an unlikely league and cup double, dragging a fractured season into a triumphant one.

That was supposed to be the epilogue. Instead, it became the prelude. Earlier this summer, he agreed to stay on permanently, and Celtic have ridden that momentum into a bright start at home and in Europe.

“Martin is a manager,” former Celtic midfielder Scott Brown said on Sportsound. “The times have changed but it is amazing that he has moved with them.”

Brown talked about the calmness in O’Neill’s voice on radio and television, the quiet certainty that spills over into the dressing room and the stands. Confidence as a contagion.

Pat Nevin, speaking on Match of the Day, pointed to the less obvious work. “Sometimes it’s hard to see what Martin does for the team, but he seems to be able to mould a side,” the former Scotland winger said. The best managers, Nevin argued, understand which players complement each other and how to draw the maximum from them. For him, O’Neill’s work last season “was out of this world”.

That is the backdrop to nights like this. A veteran coach, supposedly from another era, shaping a modern squad, aligning Nygren’s sharpness with Duran’s power, and turning a tricky play-off into a showcase.

Whatever happens from here, O’Neill’s status at Celtic is secure. He is already a legend. But if this team now finishes the job against LASK and marches into the Champions League group stage, the story of his return will move from heart-warming to historic.

At 74, after hospital visits and talk of retirement, he stands on the verge of another crack at Europe’s elite. How many more twists does this late-career revival have left?