On Thursday in Herning, Martin O'Neill cut an exasperated figure as Celtic were put through a harsh lesson by Europa League leaders Midtjylland.
The interim manager, who had briefly lifted spirits after Sunday’s League Cup semi-final win over Rangers, watched three first-half goals in eight blistering minutes leave his side gasping. Although the final margin was two, O'Neill conceded it “could have been any sort of score.”
Midtjylland’s attack was clinical: nine shots on target and six more off target, while Celtic rarely made the visitors work for their goals. The 19-year-old Mikel Kruger-Johnsen netted a composed second after a smart clipped finish for the opener; the second was the product of too much space and the third arrived from a failure to clear a throw-in.
O'Neill was blunt about the basic defensive failings.
"The goals that we conceded weren't good," he said. "Once a winger takes you on at full-back, you've got to stop him from getting into the penalty area. You have to engage him before he gets there... Then in the second goal, we had a 2v2 situation, and we allowed the player just to come inside and bend it into the net. So from
