Martin O’Neill has accused Danny Rohl of performing ‘like a fan’ after the Rangers supervisor questioned his facet’s method in Stuttgart.
Celtic scored via Luke McCowan inside 29 seconds in a 1-0 win, and nearly instantly pulled one other purpose again within the tie via Daizen Maeda.
Regardless of in the end going out of the Europa League 4-2 on mixture, the Parkhead males had been extensively counseled for profitable a match on German soil for the primary time.
Nevertheless, Ibrox head coach Rohl clearly wasn’t impressed with the method of O’Neill and his gamers – and questioned why Celtic hadn’t gone for ‘two or three’.
O’Neill hit again: ‘I’ve simply heard it. The lads advised me within the little TV room. He should have gone for a cup of tea when Maeda may have made it 2-0 after six minutes.
‘It’s fairly extraordinary, a rare remark to make, actually. We, imagine it or not, undoubtedly tried to win the sport.
Martin O’Neill wasn’t happy that Danny Rohl had commented on his facet’s European match
‘Critically, we wished to attempt to, once we rating early in proceedings, it offers us a significant elevate.
‘If Maeda does rating, it makes it 2-0 and it turns into actually fascinating. And I feel it spooked them for some time within the sport. They’re very, very proficient footballers, actually good gamers.
‘We simply received somewhat bit drained in direction of the tip and so they stored the ball very nicely, you realize, within the final 10 minutes. We had an opportunity. I do know it was solely about three or 4 minutes to go when Seb (Tounekti) in all probability may have scored, and that may have been an fascinating 180 seconds or one thing after that. However imagine me, we tried to win the tie.’
Rohl additionally riled O’Neill by claiming that his dilemma over which goalkeeper to decide on was ‘fascinating’ after Viljami Sinisalo stored a clear sheet in Germany when he was chosen forward of Kasper Schmeichel.
‘I additionally heard that,’ added O’Neill, whose crew face an important journey to Ibrox tomorrow. ‘I’m glad he’s actually within the make-up of my crew. He hasn’t been in Glasgow that lengthy, has he? It does really feel like that, yeah. Hopefully, as soon as he’s been round for the subsequent three or 4 years, he’ll find out about it.’
O’Neill beat Rohl of their solely assembly to this point in final yr’s League Cup semi-final at Hampden.
‘Yeah, pay attention, that was within the very early proceedings and issues have modified since that there. However we did truly beat them and I don’t assume I discussed the make-up of his crew on the time.
‘He didn’t say it in a jocular trend, did he? He’s talking like a fan, isn’t he? He’s the supervisor of Rangers.’
O’Neill, who turns 74 on Sunday, was requested if he nonetheless managed to stay calm forward of such matches.
‘Properly, hopefully Danny doesn’t do one other press convention between every now and then. Telephone him and discover out,’ he smiled. ‘He’s a really younger man, however …’
O’Neill is adamant that he’s but to resolve if a few of his star turns in Stuttgart together with Luke McCowan and Sinisalo will begin at Ibrox.
‘Actually, I’ve simply climbed off the aircraft,’ he added. ‘We’ll collect our ideas tomorrow and simply have an actual give it some thought.
‘Among the lads who performed final evening and did very, very nicely within the sport, hopefully it’s not a headache.’
