Martin O’Neill spoke to the media at VfB Stuttgart’s Neckarstadion this evening ahead of tomorrow night’s Europa League play-off second leg against the Bundesliga side who lead 4-1 from the first leg at Celtic Park. Here’s everything that was said…
Q: Martin, I think I asked you in the wake of the match last week about the fixture itself and its timing. It’s perhaps not ideal. What’s the mood in the squad been like and how have the preparations been for a tie now you’ve got to come a long way back from?
Martin O’Neill: “The preparations have been absolutely fine. Everybody except Julian Araujo, I think, has travelled with us. We’ll make decisions on the team tomorrow. We’re looking forward to the game, and I think that we’ve got some travelling fans coming here. They’ve spent some money and therefore we owe it to them.”
Q: You said you’d have a little think about what you were going to do team-wise for this one. You’re not going to tell us the team, but have you left anyone at home for this one with Sunday in mind?
Martin O’Neill: “It’s only Julian has stayed at home. The rest, everybody else has come.
Q: So how difficult a decision is it for you then to try and balance?
Martin O’Neill: “I’ll have a little think about it. We trained this morning and before we headed here. The lads are in really good form. They’re disappointed with the result behind them. We’ll get on with it from here on in.”
Q: There may be a train of thought from some supporters because there’s such a big game on Sunday that they would maybe want to see a weakened side, for want of a better phrase, tomorrow. Is that something that’s crossed your mind at all?
Martin O’Neill: “A weakened side? We’ve got very, very decent players here at the football club. All players, I think, in the squad have all played in the first team. Whatever side we put out won’t be a weakened team because the players are capable of playing. There’s been competition for places since I’ve been here, certainly before Christmas, at that time. Since then, we’ve added Tomas and a few others to the squad. So there’s good competition for places.”
Q: We obviously saw the quality of Stuttgart last week at Celtic Park. How big a test and big a challenge would this be for your side to be able to go out and take the game to extra time and get through in this tie?
Martin O’Neill: “That would be really big, I must admit. I’ve seen the game back twice now. Once very, very quickly after the match was over. You’re starting to think maybe your eyes deceive you. They are a very, very fine side, but to me it was never 4-1. I think the stats, strangely enough, if you ever believe in stats, tell you that. The game was much closer, and we gave away some very poor goals from our viewpoint. Still well in the game at half-time. Again, we conceded some poor goals from our viewpoint. The last one was poor because you’re there at 3-1. We missed a couple of decent chances ourselves. If we could rectify that, that’s easier said than done. But if we could take our chances, and we will get some chances tomorrow, and try and defy them, then we’d want to try and make it interesting.”
Q: How much is pride at stake as well? You obviously wouldn’t have wanted to have been on the end of that scoreline, despite the fact that you say the performance didn’t warrant that. But in terms of pride, not wanting a similar scoreline in the away leg as well?
Martin O’Neill: “These things can happen. I think you should take pride for granted. This is something that you should do. If you’re saying that what we’re doing here is we’re going to just sit back and allow them to come on to us the whole game, and just sit and keep numbers down, that’s not in our interest. We could get beaten in the game, but we’re certainly going to try and make a fist of this. No question about that.
“Again, I go back to the point about saying when we came in, we made this great effort to beat Feyenoord, we did brilliantly in Bologna with 10 men for most of the match, and we didn’t want to waste that. So we’re now in a knockout competition for the first time in a while, in this particular competition anyway, I think. I think this is what football is all about. You strive all season, one, to try and win the league if you can, and obviously to try and progress in Europe.
“Last season’s effort in Europe in the Champions League was really excellent, and that’s where all the disappointment from every angle comes into play. That said, this is what you do. I’ve known this both as a player and as a manager. You’ve been striving all season. You are still battling, and then you can go out of two competitions in a period of three or four days, as has happened before. But this is what you’re striving for, and I’m hoping that this will be certainly the usual learning curve for us anyway in times to come on.”
Q: You spoke about the disparity financially between Scottish clubs and some of the big European nations. Does what Bodo/Glimt did to Inter over the two legs in the Champions League give you hope that that could potentially be rebalanced, if you like?
Martin O’Neill: “I think there’s always an exception that proves the rule, like anything else. Those are terrific efforts by them, and they’ve shown it in European football. They have a massive advantage, first of all, in home legs, because they play on an artificial surface for a start. But then they travel to Inter and win the game. I don’t know what the stat was. I think somebody mentioned it coming off the plane, but it was a very, very small possession, so they’ve taken everything. It was a fantastic effort. It’s a major shock.
“Inter Milan were contesting the Champions League final last year, so this is terrific, and that does give everybody a little bit of hope. Will they go on to win the competition? Well, if you get opportunities to play on an artificial surface, it does help. Let’s be fair about it. Those teams that play on those surfaces, both domestically and at home, do have an advantage because they play there the whole time. But is that all? No, not at all. They have shown great heart, great determination, and they’ve got a couple of players who can definitely play. That does give great hope, if that’s the case. But again, it would be more the exception that proves the rule rather than anything else, in my view.’
Q: The match itself, obviously, this is a wonderful arena. If nothing else, will this be a good experience for the players?
Martin O’Neill: “Genuinely, even me now, at my age, still getting excited about football matches in European football. It’s terrific. So if you’re looking at some of the younger lads coming here, lads who have experienced a bit of European football, some of these Celtic lads, a group of them certainly have done that. But still, it’s exciting to play European football. It’s really what it’s all about. It’s the ambition for every club.”
Q: Just to ask your thoughts on the Auston Trusty appeal being unsuccessful. I know the club released a statement about that yesterday. Can I just get your thoughts on that?
Martin O’Neill: “Well, I did the interview after the game and someone asked me, were we going to appeal it? And I thought, well, I’m really not sure about it, but the appeals are, in this day and age, seemingly worthless. That’s not actually been the case. But then, when I get the information coming back from the club and what has been said in VAR, then I thought, yeah, absolutely. And I’ll tell you why. Because the referee, as he told me on Saturday, has seen the incident.
“It’s not as if he hasn’t seen it. He’s watching it. And when he’s asked by a very excited man in VAR saying, ‘Delay, delay, delay, delay.’ And they ask him and he said, ‘No, it’s nothing.’ He said, ‘I’m just going to have a word with the players.’ And then he has to trot over then to change his mind. It’s ridiculous. All I’m saying is that VAR will, in time, we won’t need a referee. VAR will do it from wherever they’re doing it from, because that’s what they did.
“So they’ve asked the referee to overturn something that he’s actually seen. He’s seen it. It’s not as if he missed the incident. Of course, that would be a different issue. He actually said, ‘It’s nothing. It’s nothing. I’m going to have a word with the players.’ And so I’ve got a player who’s missed three games.”
Q: Is that happening too often?
Martin O’Neill: “It’s such a nonsense. I’m all for it if people have missed something dramatic in a game that constitutes something that they should have a look at. But when a referee sees the incident himself, then what he’s asked to do is, no, you didn’t see that. You didn’t see that. You saw something else. That’s got to be debilitating for a referee. It’s got to be.”
