O’Neill hails 'magnificent effort' from 10-man Celtic

Martin O’Neill hailed the “magnificent effort” of his Celtic players after they held on for a 2-2 draw against Bologna with 10 men.

Reo Hatate put the Bhoys ahead after five minutes, but he was sent off after two quickfire bookings after the half-hour mark.

In what was Celtic’s 332nd match in major European competition, Hatate became the first player to both score and receive a red card in the same game for the Scottish side.

Yet Celtic seemed to be on course for a memorable victory when Auston Trusty doubled their lead before the break.

However, Bologna fought back to earn a point in the second half. The Serie A side attempted 36 shots in total, the joint second-most by any side in a Europa League game, behind only Wolfsburg versus Everton in November 2014 (39), while Kasper Schmeichel made seven saves for the visitors.

Although Celtic have now failed to win each of their last four European matches in which they have gone 2-0 up, O’Neill insisted that his side did not deserve to lose.

“It was a magnificent effort by the team. They put heart and soul into it,” O’Neill told Celtic TV.

“To play 60-odd minutes with 10 men and to show the sort of character that is supposedly lacking in this team – I don’t see it at all.

“The sending off changes the course of the game in many aspects and there’s a long way to go, but the spirit of the side was terrific and the crowd helped us the whole way through.

“It would have been a real shame if we had lost the game and the players were really out on their feet in the last 10 minutes, but they kept going.

“What it does for us, the point at least takes it into the final game and what we’ve done is given ourselves a bit of hope.”

Celtic are now 24th in the league phase heading into the final matchday next week, knowing a win would guarantee a playoff place after rivals Rangers did them a favour by beating Ludogorets.