Celtic manager Martin O'Neill drew attention to the positive performance in the second half after his team lost 4-1 against Benfica in the UEFA Europa League match. O'Neill expressed hope that his team could reach the knockout stages despite the poor start.

Celtic fell 3-0 down at half-time against Benfica after losing all of their high-stakes games this season. Just four minutes after the starting whistle, Dane Murray fouled Jhon Duran and awarded a penalty, and these mistakes negatively affected the team's performance in the first half. When Sebastian Tounekti passed Alexander Bah for Benfica's second goal, goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo could not stop Duran's shot for the third goal. In the second half, Camilo Duran raised hopes by scoring a goal, but the goal scored by Vangelis Pavlidis in the last minutes ended all Celtic's hopes.

"You don't want to concede a goal at the beginning of the game. We could have given up, but the performance in the second half was excellent. We created opportunity after opportunity. The performance in the second half gives me determination... We still have a chance to get out of the group. We can come back again. We could have scored many goals," said O'Neill.

But even Celtic's most loyal fans find it difficult to share O'Neill's optimism. The team ranks 34th among 36 teams after two matches. Team captain Callum McGregor admitted that mistakes made in the first half contributed to their downfall: "We couldn't help ourselves at all in the first half. Human errors led to the second and third goals and we had a mountain to climb. If you don't have the ball at this level, you get punished," he said.

Even though Celtic conceded the fourth goal, it would not be wrong to say that Benfica deserved the score. The Portuguese team created many opportunities in both halves, scoring four goals as well as hitting the post twice. Celtic's lack of depth in defense was once again evident in the absence of the injured Cameron Carter-Vickers. Gianluca Prestianni and Duran put the guest team's defense in a difficult situation.

Perhaps O'Neill's biggest problem is in the forward line. Kasper Hogh, the highest-paid transfer in the club's history, was removed at half-time of the match and could only score one goal in 11 matches since the summer. Duran posed more of a threat in the second half and former Celtic player Scott Allan said: "If I'm a creative midfielder and I've got Duran and Hogh, I'll pick Duran any day. He gets past defenders, if there's a ball in the area, he's more careful. Hogh is not at the level he wants. With the change made at half-time, Celtic started to look better in attack."O'Neill added that he thought Duran's best position was in the middle, but he was reluctant to move him to the side due to Hogh's price: "Duran played wide in his previous clubs. But I personally think his best position is in the middle. Now it is important how we use him in the team. There is a fight for places."