9th September 2026; McDiarmid Park, Perth, Scotland: Scottish Premiership Football, St Johnstone versus Celtic; Celtic manager Martin ONeill
Martin O’Neill has claimed that his use of the Celtic squad against Besiktas was exactly the plan.
All three of Celtic’s goals came from the substitutes made in the 61st minute.
Colby Donovan was a like for like replacement for Jordan Lotomba but it was in the forward areas that changes impacted the result.
Callum Osmand and Camilo Duran replaced Sebastian Tounekti and James Forrest, initially both were to play on the wings in support of Kasper Hogh.
From a central position Osmand equalised for Celtic with a brilliantly placed, low 20 yard shot.
In the 77th minute Haissem Hassan replaced Hogh, Duran moved into the centre and scored twice inside 10 minutes.
When the Celtic team was announced at 6.45pm there was a mixture of shock and disbelief among fans. Especially over Duran starting on the bench.
In the first half Celtic created virtually nothing but the match was goal-less at the break.
It was a high risk strategy from O’Neill but with the substitutes turning the match he was in full celebration mode at the final whistle.
O’NEILL DEFENDS HIS CELTIC PLAN
3 minutes 36 seconds
Gordon Duncan: I suppose the life of a manager is it’s either inspired substitutions or is it an argument that those players should have started in the first place?
Martin O’Neill:
No, I’m serious. I’m not standing up for myself. It was designed to do exactly what it did.
We have been playing we’ve been playing Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Wednesday, whatever day it happens to be. We have played, I don’t know what, nine games in 23 days or 24 days.
Some players needed a little breather and you can get re-energised from coming on the field. So no, absolutely not. So I’m going to say that this was exactly our plan.
And those players who came on were going to come on at some stage or another in the game.
Changing all three forwards came as a shock to supporters as they prepared for the match.
Duran is clearly a class act, despite Celtic’s struggles he has scored five goals in five European matches- the sort of stats that earned him his transfer from Qarabag in the close season.
Getting the best out of the Colombian striker will be the key to whether Celtic can build on last night’s win.
Duran can get goals coming in off the right wing but both goals last night were from central positions showing a real instinct for goal.
Getting the right support in place is critical to getting the best out of Duran which is a supply of goals.
On Sunday Jota comes back into contention for the match against Kilmarnock.
After the November international break the pairing of Jota and Duran could be central to Celtic’s hopes of progressing as a unit.
