“The players showed phenomenal courage and great determination and a rear-guard action, which is really commendable,” O’Neill enthused as the dust settled.
“Everyone to a man did more than their jobs. They were really terrific,” he added.
Under the pressure they faced, Celtic stood incredibly strong. The defence was outstanding. Goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo was commanding when required. Their execution during the shootout, exemplary.
Rangers had 24 shots in the contest, six on target. Not that the impressive Sinisalo had to produce save after save, though.
That is what Danny Rohl’s side will reflect on – their inability to hurt their clearly diminished rivals, who looked there for the taking.
It wasn’t pretty but winning titles and trophies requires an ability to battle on when all feels lost and Celtic put up an almighty fight on those terms.
This outcome, and the manner of it, may well lead to Scottish Cup silverware and push them forward in defence of their Premiership title. Celtic will take on St Mirren, who beat them in the League Cup final, in the semi-final and trail league leaders Hearts by five points with nine games to go.
“They refused to lose the game,” O’Neill added. “That’s really significant.
“There’s certain aspects of the team we’d like to improve, do things better, but in terms of spirit it was absolutely remarkable.”
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