Martin O’Neill has revealed what he said to the Celtic players after their 4-1 Europa League defeat to Benfica in Lisbon.

Celtic were three goals down at half-time, and there was plenty of criticism after the game.

But O’Neill had seen something in the second half that he wanted his players to remember.

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What Martin O’Neill told Celtic players after Benfica defeat

O’Neill was asked about the media reaction to the result and why he had spoken positively about Celtic’s second-half performance.

As reported by the Daily Record, O’Neill said: “Well, the interesting thing you talk about the media, in all honesty, is that I know whatever you say, it’ll go whatever way they want it to go. But I was really positive about the second half.

“I told the players in the dressing room after the Benfica game that that’s it, we’ve got to take the positive side of it, otherwise you just might as well lie down.”

O’Neill also explained why he paid little attention to what was being said outside the club.

He continued: “I wasn’t widely bothered about what media or fanzines were saying at the end of it all, as long as the players believed it was the most important thing. And they certainly did.”

Celtic had been poor in the first half against Benfica. O’Neill wasn’t disputing that. He wanted the players to recognise that they had improved after the break rather than leave Lisbon thinking everything about their performance had been a failure.

And with Hearts coming to Celtic Park just days later, he needed them ready to put the defeat behind them.

O’Neill points to Celtic’s Hearts win ahead of Celta Vigo clash

Celtic hammered Hearts 7-1 on Sunday, with Callum Osmand scoring twice on his first start for the club.

Osmand had impressed after coming off the bench in Lisbon, and O’Neill explained what the youngster had done to earn his place against Hearts.

The result gave O’Neill plenty to be pleased about, although he knows Celtic can’t afford another European defeat when Celta Vigo visit on Thursday.

O’Neill added: “We had great moments on Sunday, it was lovely to win, it was lovely to score the goals that we did. And now we’ve got a massive game on Thursday to try and win, to try and get back into that competition.”

Celtic have no points from their opening two Europa League games, leaving them with ground to make up.

The Hearts result showed the players hadn’t allowed Benfica to knock their confidence. Getting a win against Celta Vigo would be an even bigger test of O’Neill’s dressing-room message.