The front four of Osmand, Benjamin Nygren, Hassan and Duran did not cause Hearts any problems.
A double for the young striker, a double for the Swedish international from the midfielder on his eighth for the season well before Halloween, a goal and two assists from the consistently impressive Colombian and one of the Egyptian winger’s best displays since signing after the World Cup. Is this template moving forward? Not necessarily, according to their manager.
“No, because we have a lot of games to come in Europe and in the league,” O’Neill said.
“We’re going to go Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday. So we’re going to have to mix it up a little bit. It’s also a squad game for us at this stage. From now until early January, we’re constantly there.”
As if to prove their point, Celtic’s next game falls into the must-win category as Celta Vigo call on Thursday for a Europa League clash, with both sides yet to record a point in the league after both defeats.
“We’ll make a few adjustments Thursday night,” O’Neill said.
“We still want to try and win and I think it helps a lot with other players coming on and having little games here and there. It helps the whole squad and I think it helps the confidence of the team.
“It’s going to be a tough game for us. Celta Vigo are a team in the Spanish big league, they’re a very, very good team, but it’s probably a game we should win.
“We need to win to give ourselves some momentum and we’ve lost two games so we really need to win this one. We’re going to try to do that.”