The Celtic players had a mixture of emotions following Thursday night’s 2-2 draw away to Bologna in the Europa League – a sense of pride in gaining a vital point, but also some disappointment in not getting the win after establishing a two-goal lead. However, given the context of the match, with Martin O’Neill’s side playing for over an hour with 10 men following Reo Hatate’s sending off, it was a strong performance from the Hoops and means that victory over FC Utrecht at Celtic Park next Thursday will book a place in the next round of the competition. Speaking to Celtic TV after the game, captain Callum McGregor said: “At the beginning, if you’re offered a chance to win at home to go through, then you take it and it does set us up well for next week. “Obviously we put ourselves in a position to go and win the (Bologna) game and there’s a little bit of disappointment in not being able to hang on, but with the balance of the game the draw was probably a good result, especially going down to 10 men.“It shows you where the players are at in terms of mentality, to go from 2-0 up to draw the game, we’re a wee bit disappointed with that. But, overall, in terms of performance with 10 men, and taking everything into consideration it was still a very good point which sets us up well for next week.” Before that Europa League game, however, Celtic head to Tynecastle on Sunday for a top of the table clash with Hearts, and the Hoops skipper is looking forward to that match. “We’ll just recover as much as we can,” he said. “We’ll be in today and on Saturday, so it’s just recovery and preparing for the game, and then when the game comes, we have to do everything we can to make sure that we win the game and hopefully send a strong message.”
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