Even now, 10 months after it was first announced in a jaw-dropping late-night statement, there remains something faintly surreal at Martin O’Neill being front and centre stage with Celtic once more.The Northern Irishman hadn’t been seen in a dugout since leaving his old stomping ground at Nottingham Forest six years previously when Dermot Desmond’s number flashed up on his phone as he paused for coffee in the King’s Road last October.O’Neill, memorably, had spent that morning on radio dismissing the title credentials of Celtic and Rangers and suggesting that Hearts could go all the way. Sometimes, life comes at you fast.We now know how all that panned out. Despite being pushed aside for Wilfried Nancy later in the year, the veteran was rehired in just enough time to repair the damage done by the Frenchman.In confounding his own expectations to lead Celtic to the championship ahead of the Tynecastle side, he went a long way to atoning for losing it on the last day of season 2004-05, at the end of his first spell in Glasgow.If that title-winning feeling was a box which O’Neill would dearly have loved to have ticked when he first slipped back into the tracksuit and the boots last October, it’s fair to say that the opportunity which awaits him tonight in Austria wouldn’t even have been in his thoughts. Martin O’Neill hopes his side will be in the hat come Friday’s Champions League drawA return to the Champions League for the 74-year-old after a 22-year gap would — to coin one of his own favourite phrases — be nothing short of extraordinary.‘I would love to do it,’ he said after his side had defeated LASK 3-0 in last week’s first leg. ‘But honestly… Tuesday… I wish it would never come.’As O’Neill left the media tent after speaking to reporters that night, the mind flashed back to his last continental campaign all those years ago. In some respects, it feels like yesterday. In others, it does feel like an awfully long time ago.It was O’Neill’s third crack at the old four-team Champions League section and unquestionably his toughest assignment. Celtic had Barcelona, AC Milan and a fine Shakhtar Donetsk side for company in Group F.They lost at home to the Catalans, went down in Italy and Ukraine, narrowly defeated Shakhtar in Glasgow and took a point in the Nou Camp courtesy of John Hartson. It all ended rather flatly and without a parachute into what was then still called the UEFA Cup.A goalless draw at home to Milan on December 7 came despite eight players who’d featured in Seville in 2003 starting. It was the beginning of the end for that all-conquering team.An hour or so later, on a night which had seen Brazilian midfielder Juninho again flatter to deceive, Paulo Maldini told a huddle of journalists that Celtic’s teenage winger Aiden McGeady had caught his eye and was one for the future.Terrifyingly, McGeady turned 40 in April, is long retired and now offers his opinions on the game from the comfort of a radio studio.How bizarre — and inspiring — the former winger must find it that the man who handed him his Celtic debut back in 2003-04 is still making all the headlines.Were his team to do what’s required of them in northern Austria, O’Neill will also create a piece of personal history. O’Neill’s last venture in this competition saw him go up against Barcelona boss Frank RijkaardWhen Jupp Heynckes managed Bayern Munich in the Champions League in 2011-12, it saw him return to the continent’s greatest stage 13 years after leading Real Madrid (and winning the competition). If Celtic’s name is in the hat at the draw on Friday, O’Neill will trump that period in exile by eight years.There’s a bit of work to get through first, however, before UEFA’s statisticians will be compelled to update their records.While O’Neill’s men were outstanding at home last Wednesday, LASK were entitled to feel that the scoreline was harsh on them. Celtic were ruthless when it counted. The Austrians were not.O’Neill and his coaching staff will have spent the free weekend stressing that LASK aren’t normally so profligate and are unlikely to be so again.Celtic should be wary of the fact that Dietmar Kuhbauer’s outfit tend to score in clusters in big matches.In last season’s Austrian Bundesliga, they hit three against Sturm Graz, RB Salzburg, Rapid Vienna (twice) and hit seven goals in two games against Austria Vienna.Neither Moses Usor, last season’s top scorer with 15, nor Samuel Adeniran, their hulking American centre forward, had their shooting boots on in Glasgow.On another night, though, they could well have had a couple apiece. Having also had the weekend off, given the level of expectation in their camp after how it went last week, this almost feels like a free hit.‘We need an exceptional performance now in Linz,’ Kuhbauer said. ‘We’ll do everything we can to achieve the impossible.’While that might be stretching the scale of the task a little bit, the Austrians plainly need absolutely everything to go their way if they are to make the Champions League for the first time.Only once have Celtic lost a three-goal first leg lead in Europe and even that came away to MTK Hungaria in the semi-final of the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963-64.The third goal last Wednesday, which arrived from the left-boot of Camilo Duran, felt significant, as did the clean sheet delivered by Viljami Sinisalo. Summer signing Camilo Duran netted twice in a resounding 3-0 first-leg win over the AustriansAs is his wont, O’Neill will have spent the intervening days fixated with his vintage side’s mixed record on the road in Europe back in the day. He even mentioned the two-goal defeat in Basel which saw his team eliminated in the 2002-03 Champions League play-off on away goals before a ball was kicked against LASK.More pertinent, though, is surely the fact that so many of the current side won away to Feyenoord and VfB Stuttgart in last year’s Europa League as well as taking a hard-earned point from Bologna with 10 men.The squad has improved markedly since then in terms of personnel with Duran, Kasper Hogh, Mika Baur and Haissem Hassan having arrived for a combined £30million.What a difference to a year ago under Brendan Rodgers when a frontline containing want-away Adam Idah and the hapless Shin Yamada failed to score a goal in 210 minutes against Kairat Almaty.O’Neill’s side have already managed to find the net 13 times in four competitive matches. If they can weather the early storm this evening and sneak a goal on the break, they can strike up the music for the last dance.