Celtic's Harrowing Collapse in Champions League Qualifier

Martin O’Neill did not try to dress it up. From 4-0 up on aggregate and apparently strolling into the Champions League, Celtic contrived to suffer one of the most harrowing collapses of his long reign.

In Austria on Tuesday night, everything initially pointed towards routine progress. Already 3-0 ahead from the first leg against Lask, Celtic tightened their grip when Callum McGregor struck in the 21st minute. Four up overall, away from home, and seemingly out of sight.

They were not.

What followed was a capitulation that will live with this team and its manager. Lask hit back, forced extra time and ran away with a 5-1 win on the night, knocking Celtic out in scarcely believable fashion and sending them tumbling into the Europa League instead of the Champions League group stage.

The financial hit is brutal. The club stand to miss out on at least £20m, a figure that only deepens the sense of waste around a tie that looked all but finished before half-time in Linz.

For O’Neill, who has managed Celtic in more than 300 matches and led them into some of the biggest nights in the club’s modern history, this cut as deeply as anything.

“I would say absolutely, yes,” the 74-year-old said when asked if it ranked among his worst evenings in charge. “I’d put it down before the disappointment of losing the Uefa Cup final in 2003, but it’s so, so disappointing.”

The frustration lay not just in the result, but in how preventable it all felt.

“We should have been out of sight by half-time,” O’Neill said. “We scored a goal, which was great, we missed two great, great opportunities. And then we give them a lifeline just before half-time and then one just after it. And they come roaring back. And obviously we conceded, from our viewpoint, not good goals at all. But that’s my team and that’s my responsibility.”

The momentum turned the moment Celtic allowed doubt to creep in. Lask sensed it, the crowd sensed it, and the game changed shape. Celtic, so assured at 4-0 up, suddenly looked fragile. Each concession fed the next.

Questions over the depth and quality of the squad inevitably followed, but O’Neill refused to be drawn into that debate on the night.

“These are tough games,” he said. “And it might only be a Champions League qualifying game, but it felt like a Champions League game. I thought they were a fine side. But that doesn’t matter. We should have been able to have seen it through. And we didn’t do. Talking about the squad, that’s for another day.”

If the manager was blunt, his captain went even harder.

McGregor, who had seemingly put the tie beyond doubt with his early goal, offered no alibis when he spoke afterwards.

“We got what we deserved,” he told Amazon Prime. “I thought we were so passive. All night. We actually looked scared to go and win the game, and when you are 3-0 up it’s psychological.”

He did not spare the first leg either, despite the 3-0 scoreline at Celtic Park.

“To be honest I didn’t think we were that good in the first leg, either,” he admitted. “We scored at good times and kind of got away with it. You go 3-0 and you think you’ve got a real chance but when you play like that you can’t have any excuse whatsoever.”

The theme was clear: no excuses, no escape.

“We have to suck it up, apologise to the supporters and the club because there is no way that we should lose that game … Now you’ll see what kind of characters are in there.”

The Champions League dream has gone for another season, replaced by the grind and lesser glamour of the Europa League. The financial damage is already being counted. The psychological damage will take longer to measure.

The next time Celtic build a lead in Europe, the memory of this collapse will not be far from anyone’s mind.