Cup of Good Hope; the Champions League has Been Bad for Martin O'neill so Far, but If His Team Don't Find Some Form Against Shakhtar Donetsk, Even the Consolation of the Uefa Cup Will Disappear, Says Michael Grant

Sunday Herald › October 19, 2004

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Summary

AS they scavenge for every available crumb of encouragement ahead of the pivotal back-to-back fixtures in their Champions League campaign, Celtic will find more cause for optimism from the tournament's historical records than from any current form guide.

This has the feel of a campaign in which Celtic are already doomed. Having lost at home to Barcelona and away to AC Milan, scoring only twice and conceding six in the process, it is reasonable to assume that another defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday would be a blow from which recovery would be impossible. Nevertheless, the record books do show that once in a while the Champions League permits a rare act of escapology.

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Cup of Good Hope; the Champions League has Been Bad for Martin O'neill so Far, but If His Team Don't Find Some Form Against Shakhtar Donetsk, Even the Consolation of the Uefa Cup Will Disappear, Says Michael Grant

The most remarkable reversal of fortune in the history of the groups came in 2002-03 when Newcastle qualified despite losing all of their first three matches. For them to be pointless at the halfway stage of the six-match sequence and then recover with three straight victories - including a necessary but impossibly dramatic 90th-minute winner in their final match - bordered on the miraculous.

Celta Vigo pulled off a similar resurrection last season when they drew their first two matches and then lost their third, although of course two draws meant that in those fixtures no ground was lost to the opposition. But Celtic, li...

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