Celtic returned to winning ways and to the top of the Scottish Premiership with a deserved 2-0 win at Motherwell on Sunday, a result that eased weeks of acrimony around the club. Camilo Duran fired the visitors ahead early and Benjamin Nygren sealed victory in the second half.
The match at Fir Park also brought the long-awaited return of Jota, who came on as a 74th-minute substitute after almost 18 months out through injury. The Portuguese winger, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury at Tannadice in April 2025, almost marked his comeback with an assist with his first touches in a lively cameo, and he led the post-match celebrations with supporters.
Jota said he had waited a long time for the moment. “Just happy to be back. I’ve been working hard, the guys have been helping me as well. It was just the normal nerves, but after I stepped on the pitch everything goes well.” Asked about the mental toll of his spell out, the 27-year-old added: “Imagine if someone takes away your child and I’ve got my child back today – that’s how I’ve been feeling the last year. I found my child again today and I just want to keep it as long as I can. I’m feeling very good and I’m ready to play more and more and help the team. I know what I can do.”
The positive scenes at full-time contrasted with the gloom that has surrounded Celtic lately. Before the international break, Martin O’Neill’s side had lost three straight matches, two of them to rivals Rangers. Celtic’s largest shareholder, Dermot Desmond, was also the target of a protest during the Alfred Dunhill Links golf tournament in St Andrews. O’Neill had questioned whether he had the energy to continue as manager after Rangers won at Parkhead last month, before committing to stay on.
Former Scotland defender Willie Miller said: “I could only imagine the pressure on Martin O’Neill – I know what it’s like in Glasgow if you are beaten by Rangers twice. But it seems like he’s got his mojo back and is back to his old form and that’s what results do. All round, when you look at his team, it must give him a lot of satisfaction.” O’Neill himself said: “Of course, there was a lot of noise and a lot of it we brought on ourselves as well too. So, nice to win. We have to take the criticism at the time. We lost three matches in a week – two to our big rivals. But we fought back today and let’s see what Thursday brings.”
Thursday brings a sterner test in the Europa League, with Portuguese giants Benfica lying in wait. Celtic then host Hearts – who Benfica beat 7-2 on aggregate in European qualifiers earlier this term – before facing Celta Vigo in another stiff Europa League test.
Celtic missed a heap of chances against Motherwell, with opposition goalkeeper Alex Paulsen making 12 saves, but O’Neill was not concerned by his side’s profligacy. “We had a lot of chances and we could have [scored more],” he said. “The first goal’s really important, a great goal by Camilo and it settled us down which was good. A lot of things have flashed across the box, a number of chances in both halves, but delighted to win. Just really pleased. Pleased with the performance, pleased with the energy that we showed and delighted to win. It’s psychologically a big boost to play as well as we did and go back to the top of the table.”