The 4-1 Europa League defeat by Benfica in Lisbon on Thursday night left the Hoops with no points from six after two league-phase fixtures, but the Celtic boss remains upbeat.

Amid a hectic schedule, Celtic have to quickly get ready for the William Hill Premiership clash with the Jambos, who drew 1-1 with FC Nordsjaelland in their Conference League clash at Tynecastle, also on Thursday night.

O’Neill told Celtic Player: “I said to the players at the end of the game, we should take encouragement from it. Yes, we’ve been beaten in the game; 4-1 suggests that you’re well beaten in a match.

“But for me, I thought the second-half performance was absolutely terrific, and that augurs well for us. We’ll try and get our energy back again for the big, big game on Sunday.

“And we have not given up in this competition, not by a long way.”

(Image: Luis Loureiro / Shutterstock)

It looked ominous for Celtic when Jhon Duran scored with a ‘Panenka’ penalty after just five minutes, having been fouled by Hoops defender Dane Murray.

The Colombian striker doubled his tally with a fine finish in the 35th minute, after unmarked defender Alexander Bah had sidefooted in a second goal midway through the first half.

O’Neill brought on Callum Osmand and Haissem Hassan for Kasper Hogh and Sebastian Tounekti for the start of the second half, and within five minutes the latter had a shot saved by Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin, who then watched Osmand fire an effort over the bar.

Celtic gave themselves a lifeline just over the hour mark when Camilo Duran headed in from a Hassan cross, then the Colombian striker fired a shot against a post, but the comeback failed to materialise, and Benfica substitute Vangelis Pavlidis fired in a fourth with two minutes remaining.

O’Neill said: “It was a big, big test. I felt the character of this side is something that you want to imbue in the team. We said, 3-0 down at half-time, the last thing you want to do is crumble; well, far from crumbling, we created the chances in the game.

“The number of chances we created in the second half, and it was the ability to go forward and take players on with Hassan on one side, and obviously little Callum on the other side. Brilliant.”