Celtic's Painful Collapse Against Lask: From 4-0 to Europa League

Martin O’Neill called it one of the most painful nights of his Celtic reign. It is hard to argue.

From 4-0 up on aggregate and apparently strolling into the Champions League league phase, Celtic contrived to crash out against Lask in Austria, losing 5-1 after extra time and tumbling into the Europa League with a financial and psychological thud.

From cruise control to collapse

Callum McGregor’s goal after 21 minutes on Tuesday, adding to a 3-0 first-leg advantage, should have killed the tie. Celtic looked in command, the away end in full voice, the £20m Champions League jackpot almost within reach.

They had chances to bury it. Big ones. They missed them.

Then the whole night turned.

Lask pulled one back before half-time. Another just after it. The atmosphere flipped. The home side surged, Celtic shrank, and a tie that should have been dead suddenly crackled with belief – for the Austrians, not the Scots.

By the time extra time arrived, the momentum was entirely one way. Celtic conceded again and again, the defensive structure disintegrating as Lask roared back to complete a comeback that will live long in their history and haunt Celtic’s.

“That’s my responsibility”

For O’Neill, a man who has managed Celtic in more than 300 games and taken them to European finals, this was a wound that cut deeper than most.

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

“We should have been out of sight by half-time. 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.”

He refused to turn the postmortem into a public inquest on his players’ quality, but the question inevitably came.

Asked if his squad was strong enough, O’Neill replied: “These are tough games. 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.”

McGregor: “We got what we deserved”

If the manager was measured, his captain was brutally honest.

“We got what we deserved,” McGregor 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.

“To be honest I didn’t think we were that good in the first leg, either. 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.

“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 numbers are stark. A four-goal aggregate cushion squandered. At least £20m in Champions League revenue gone. A place in the Europa League secured, but as consolation, not reward.

The financial blow will be felt on the balance sheet. The psychological blow will linger in the dressing room. The real test, as McGregor hinted, comes next: how does this Celtic team respond when a season has already been jolted off course in August?