Celtic need O'Neill fire and fortune

For a man supposedly exhibiting advanced signs of acute paranoia, Martin O'Neill wasn't half calm as he trudged from interview to interview along the green carpeted corridors of Parkhead yesterday.

Seventeen months into his tenure at Celtic, O'Neill stands accused by a certain section of the Scottish media of belligerence, irrationality and of behaviour befitting "a drama queen".

This is because O'Neill has not been totally happy to accept that he has made tactical errors in Celtic's away games in the Champions League.

The inability to take criticism is hardly a failing limited to football managers, but while there was a spell in the first half in Trondheim against Rosenborg last week when the back three favoured by O'Neill looked insufficient in numbers and quality - and the overall performance in Oporto was poor - any judgment of O'Neill's Celtic must surely begin with the fact that he took the job only in June of last year.

O'Neill spent much of that first month working as an analyst for the BBC at Euro 2000, but in the period since he has instigated a club revolution of such sweeping significance that tonight Celtic have the chance of reaching the second phase of the Champions League. That chance comes against Juventus.

Having one of the great names in European football again engaged in meaningful action at Celtic Park would, one imagines, be the cause of rare glee. But in the goldfish bowl of Glasgow football that, it seems, is not enough.

Such an opinion ignores Celtic's standing when O'Neill took over. This was a club cut adrift from Rangers, one which had been knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Inverness Caledonian Thistle, one which was drawing 0-0 with St Johnstone a month before O'Neill's arrival.

The Juventus manager, Marcello Lippi, fully appreciates what O'Neill has achieved: "I admire what he has done at Celtic. If Alex Ferguson has mentioned him in connection with the Manchester United job it is an honour for him, but it doesn't surprise me."

O'Neill's net spend in the 17 months since he took over is £17 million sterling. Tonight Juventus will field a goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, who cost £32 million.

But Juventus's wealth and depth of talent, accrued over years of successful European activity, is such that Buffon will be fielded on the bench.

Lippi has left Paolo Montero, Igor Tudor and Lilian Thuram behind in Turin. But he said: "There will some players missing, but the level of their performances will not drop."

This, meanwhile, is Celtic's first taste of the Champions League. Getting to the stage where a home victory over Juventus coupled with a point or more for Rosenborg in Oporto would see Celtic playing second-phase Champions League football is quite an achievement.

The day before a game is not the time to be gloating, however, and yesterday O'Neill instead magnanimously acknowledged that he has not been faultless.

Having described the 1-0 home defeat by Ajax in the qualifying round's second leg in August as a "massive lesson", O'Neill moved on to the accusation of tactical rigidity. "Given the players available, I try to utilise the system round that," he said .

"For what it's worth, we did actually go to a back four in Porto for 25 minutes with Neil Lennon to give us stability. I'm always thinking, believe it or not."

This evening, though, needing three points not only to keep alive the hope of qualification but also to ensure third place in the group and entry into the UEFA Cup, O'Neill is likely to use the established formation and personnel against a weakened Juventus side already through to Friday's draw.

Celtic's presence in it would be rather more remarkable than their absence.

CELTIC (probable): Douglas; Balde, Mjallby, Valgaeren; Agathe, Lennon, Lambert, Petrov, Petta; Sutton, Larsson

JUVENTUS (probable): Carini; Birindelli, Ferrara, Iuliano, Paramatti; Zenoni, Maresca, Davids, Nedved; Amoruso, Del Piero.