Q: Was it quite frightening to be involved?
Martin O’Neill: “Well, I didn’t think so, because if I’m on and I’m waving to our crowd and we have actually won, there’s a fairly decent chance I’m going to get off lightly in that one. If we had lost, I don’t think I would have been there. I think I might have been the first one down in the tunnel. I’m not trying to play lightly or whatever. There is an excessive celebration if that’s the case, and I would need to see the whole thing again.”
Austin Trusty scores his penalty. Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
Q: Just on the football itself, obviously, the penalties were taken at the Rangers end, but your players certainly held on there for four conversions?
Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, they did. I must admit that they took them brilliantly. They were obviously under a lot of pressure to do it. So to step up and take that walk for a start, which I said that you can’t really do it. You can take penalties (in training), which we did, but you can’t really – what shall I say – you just don’t know what it’s like until you step up and take the penalties. It was pleasing to see how well they did it.”
Tomas Cvancara scores the penalty that takes Celtic into the semi-finals. Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
Q: You said you practised it in training. To what extent did you guys practise the penalties?
Martin O’Neill: “You practise the penalties, but you can’t replicate it. You certainly cannot do it. After Reo Hatate last Sunday, taking the penalties, once I saw that Reo was down as one of the five penalty takers, I might have been a bit concerned. It didn’t take him three attempts to put it in, and he wanted to take the penalty. The most important thing, I think, about these things is that the five of them wanted to take the penalties. So that’s great.”
Q: Martin, you’ve been in charge of a few of these games at the time. Can you remember as good a Celtic defensive display?
Martin O’Neill: “It’s really, really strong. I know I’ve said this here now. I don’t want to delve into the past, but I’ve come here with really, really strong defence before. The number of blocks that we got on, the number of last-ditched challenges that we made in the game, just to stay in the tie, it was really amazing.”
Callum McGregor ahead of the match. Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
Q: The fact that you did it without Callum McGregor?
Martin O’Neill: “I think that shouldn’t be overlooked, the very fact that Callum, I think I said this, that he was feeling it in Aberdeen. I think the medical team were saying it’s something that was here last year, maybe come back, and maybe missed a few games or something like that there. So the best thing to do was just to take him out of it. Kieran Tierney was just certainly not right to start in the game. He might have been able to have come on, I think, but I thought, well, who knows what might happen during the course of it. He might have been forced to go on after five minutes in the match and then he wouldn’t have lasted. So for us to miss two big players like that there and still come through, it was brilliant.”
Q: You’ve won at Ibrox a number of times, Martin, so how does that rank in all those victories?
Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, I think any victory at Ibrox is big news for us. So from that viewpoint, it was great to win and we’re into the semi-final of the Scottish cup. Still a million miles to go, both that and in the league, but that should give the players an enormous boost.”
Q: How much does that set you up for the rest of the campaign in the league and the cup?
Martin O’Neill: “It’s a good point you mentioned. I genuinely do not know. Honestly, I don’t know. There’s going to be twists and turns. I went to Dundee yesterday with Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham to watch the game. So we’ve got Motherwell next, which will not be easy for us. So I honestly don’t know.”
Referee Don Robertson and Viljami Sinisalo after Celtic won the Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
Q: Viljami Sinisalo’s performance was pretty much flawless. He certainly answered any questions?
Martin O’Neill: “He did really well for us. He did really well. I just asked him, could he command the six yard box? And he did that wonderfully well. And when it looked as if he might have been beaten, then somebody else got the block on for him. So I was really delighted with him.”
