Celtic manager Martin O'Neill chose to focus on the second-half positives from his side's 4-1 Europa League defeat by Benfica and insisted they can still reach the knockout stages despite their slow start. In stark contrast, Chris Sutton branded his former side as "flat-track bullies". Celtic have lost four of their past five games.
Every high-stakes match this term - both meetings with Rangers and both European outings - has ended in a defeat. By the time their performance improved in Lisbon on Thursday, they were three goals down and effectively already out of the contest, hamstrung by their own sloppy mistakes. Dane Murray upended Jhon Duran to concede a penalty inside four minutes, an error which characterised the first 45 minutes.
Sebastian Tounekti then allowed Alexander Bah to run past him for Benfica's second and goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo was beaten too easily as Duran scored the hosts' third. Celtic suffer fourth defeat in five against classy Benfica Visit our Celtic page for all the latest news, analysis and fan views Camilo Duran pulled one back after the break and struck a post as the Scottish champions improved, but Vangelis Pavlidis struck Benfica's fourth late on to kill any faint Celtic hopes. "Last thing you want to do is concede so early on," O'Neill said.
"We could've capitulated, but I thought the second-half performance was terrific. We created chance after chance. "The second-half performance gives me the determination...
I think we can still qualify. We could've scored a number of goals. I accept on the break they could have scored themselves, as they did with their fourth goal." Even the most ardent Celtic supporters would struggle to share their manager's optimism given they sit 34th of 36 teams in the competition after two games.
Captain Callum McGregor admitted Celtic were masters of their own downfall in the first half. "First half we didn't help ourselves," he told TNT Sports. "Unforced errors lead to the second and third goals and you have a mountain to climb.
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