Martin O’Neill has revealed that Marco Silva admitted his side were ‘wobbling’ in their win over Celtic, despite ultimately winning convincingly.

Silva coached Maloney at Hull City ten years ago, and the pair were reunited in the opposing dugouts at last week’s Europa League clash in Lisbon.

In the end, Celtic were comfortably dispatched by Silva’s side, but things could’ve been different had they taken a few vital missed chances in both halves.

The Benfica boss recognised this in his conversation with Maloney after the game, as O’Neill has now revealed ahead of returning to European action this Thursday.

Rate Callum Osmand's performance vs Hearts out of 10. Does he start against Celta Vigo?

Former Celtic striker Tony Watt has high praise for the 20-year-old 🙌

Martin O’Neill on Marco Silva’s admission: ‘That might tell you something’

O’Neill told CelticPlayer this week: “In the second half against Benfica, I thought we could win the game. We conceded the early penalty and then two more. Half-time couldn’t come quickly enough.

“But we got back into it and played really strongly. I accept the fact that on the break they could also have scored some goals themselves, but had our chance that hit the post gone in to make it 3-2, then it would have been all to play for in the last 15 minutes.

“It’s interesting because Shaun Maloney was speaking to their manager after the game – the two of them know each other from their Hull City days – and he was saying that Benfica were wobbling at 3-1.

“That might tell you something. So listening to all that also gives you some confidence that if you could strike early against Hearts to settle everyone down then things could go on from there.

“As it turned out, it was really terrific. We took a big, big lift in terms of confidence and scoring goals – everything about it was really terrific.

“Considering it was seven goals against big rivals, it augurs well. Had we been beaten by Hearts then this would maybe be a game we could be doing without.”

He continued on the Celta game: “For us, we want to try and get back on track again. We desperately want to qualify again for the knock-out stages of the competition which we did last year.

“We’ve got off to a poor start in terms of results, but this is a chance to put it right on Thursday night against a side that can consider themselves very unlucky in a couple of their own games.

“They have conceded late goals, specifically to Juventus, so they’ll be looking for three points themselves. So hopefully it should make for an open game.” “