MARTIN O’NEILL RAGES AFTER CELTIC’S HUMILIATING COLLAPSE – BOSS CALLS OUT THE POOR PERFORMANCES THAT COST THEM A CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SPOT
Celtic’s European dream died in the most painful way imaginable on Tuesday night in Austria, and manager Martin O’Neill made it crystal clear he will not paper over the cracks. Speaking after the 5-1 extra-time defeat to LASK that overturned a commanding four-goal aggregate lead, the veteran boss delivered a withering assessment of his side’s display, highlighting a series of costly individual and collective failures that turned what should have been a comfortable passage into the Champions League league phase into one of the club’s darkest continental nights in years.
Celtic had arrived at the Raiffeisen Arena with a 3-0 first-leg advantage and looked to have put the tie beyond doubt when Callum McGregor’s 21st-minute strike made it 4-0 on aggregate. For a brief period the travelling support dared to believe the job was done. What followed was a complete disintegration. A misplaced pass in midfield invited pressure, a defensive lapse allowed Moses Usor to pull a goal back before half-time, and from that moment the Scottish champions looked a shadow of the side that had dominated the first leg. Early in the second half another soft concession from distance made it 2-1 on the night. A third goal, a superb strike from outside the box, reduced the aggregate lead to one. Then, in stoppage time, a failure to clear a simple header gifted LASK the equaliser that forced extra time. The killer blow arrived in the 109th minute when the hosts completed their remarkable turnaround. A late penalty save by Viljami Sinisalo only delayed the inevitable.
O’Neill did not hold back. “We got what we deserved,” he said, echoing the words of his captain but going further in his criticism of the performance as a whole. “There were moments tonight where we looked scared, where we stopped doing the basics, and where individuals made decisions that cost us dearly. You cannot gift goals like that at this level and expect to survive. The first one came from a careless giveaway in a dangerous area. The second and third came from us standing off and allowing shots we should never have allowed. The equaliser in stoppage time was pure soft defending – a failure to deal with a cross and a rebound that should have been cleared. In extra time we had nothing left. That is not the Celtic standard. Those moments, those individual errors and the collective drop in intensity, are exactly why we are out of the Champions League.”
The manager refused to single out one scapegoat, instead painting a picture of a team that lost its shape, its nerve and its fight after the early goal. He pointed to the midfield’s failure to control the tempo once LASK began to press higher, the back line’s inability to organise under sustained pressure, and the attackers’ complete disappearance as an outlet once the game became stretched. “We had players who stopped wanting the ball,” O’Neill continued. “We had players who didn’t track runners. We had players who made the wrong choices under pressure. When you throw away a four-goal lead you cannot pretend everything was fine. It wasn’t. Certain moments defined the night, and those moments were ours to control. We didn’t.”
The financial consequences are brutal. Missing out on the Champions League league phase will cost Celtic a significant sum – estimates already circulating suggest the shortfall runs into the tens of millions when you factor in prize money, broadcasting revenue and the commercial boost that comes with regular appearances on Europe’s biggest stage. For the second successive season the club will instead compete in the Europa League, a competition they know well but one that offers far less reward and far more midweek travel for a squad already stretched.
Social media erupted within minutes of the final whistle. Fans expressed disbelief that a side capable of dismantling opponents in the Scottish Premiership could unravel so completely when it mattered most. Clips of the defensive lapses and the soft goals were shared thousands of times, accompanied by angry commentary about the lack of leadership once the first goal went in. Many pointed to the passive body language after the equaliser, the failure to respond with any sustained pressure of their own, and the sense that the team simply ran out of ideas and fight. Others noted that the warning signs had been there even in the first leg, when LASK had created chances that were ruled out, only for Celtic to fail to learn the lesson.
This is not the first time Celtic have suffered a painful European exit under pressure, but the manner of this one will rank high on the list of low points. Throwing away a four-goal aggregate lead is rare at any level. Doing so against a side that had been thoroughly outplayed seven days earlier makes it even harder to accept. O’Neill, brought in to steady the ship and deliver progress, now faces the dual challenge of lifting a dressing room that has just experienced public humiliation and preparing for a domestic campaign where expectations remain sky-high.
The manager insisted the response starts immediately. “We have to look each other in the eye and ask whether that was good enough. It wasn’t. There will be conversations. There will be hard truths. The players know which moments cost us. I know which moments cost us. The supporters know. Now we have to make sure it never happens again.”
Whether those words translate into a tighter, more resilient Celtic remains to be seen. For now the only certainty is that a Champions League place that was firmly within their grasp has slipped through their fingers because of a catalogue of poor decisions, defensive softness and a collective failure to show the character required when the pressure was at its highest. Martin O’Neill has called it out. The question is whether the players can answer him on the pitch in the weeks and months ahead.
Celtic’s European adventure at the highest level is over for another year. The inquest has only just begun.
