LASK are the side I most hoped we would avoid in the Champions League playoff round. But still, Celtic will be favourites to progress.
The Austrian champions beat Sturm Graz and Salzburg to win their second title last term, so there will be no complacency, especially considering Sturm’s 6-0 aggregate win over Hearts in the second qualifying round. In last season’s Europa League, Celtic beat Sturm more comfortably than the 2-1 score suggests, although the Austrian’s beat Newco by the same score in an earlier tie in the competition. At the very least, Austrian football can be used as a good approximation of our own standard.
LASK’s run to the title benefited from the same quality Hearts’ run to second place did last term – a season without European competition while your direct opponents had to play twice a week for much of the campaign.
They finished a poor 35th out of 36 teams in the previous season’s Conference League. Three draws (Djurgardens, Cercle Brugge, Vikingur Reykjavík) were paltry compensations for defeats to Olimpija Ljubljana, Borac Banja Luka and Fiorentina.
Austrian football started a week before us, so they have one a cup and one league win under their belts in the new campaign. It has been a quiet transfer window for them so far, with a 20-year-old central defender going to Aston Villa being the only notable departure, while they have spent a total of around £3m on two forwards.
This is a winnable tie, we have two weeks to prepare and should use the opportunity to banish all and every playoff demons we carry.
After a riveting start to the Scottish Premiership season, the champions get underway at 7.30 this evening at Celtic Park with the visit of Dundee. Credit to St Mirren and Motherwell, who managed away wins at Falkirk and Hibs, and to Aberdeen, for their dramatic comeback, although Hearts, ‘Hearts-ed it’. While game of the weekend was at Perth, which saw St Johnstone beat Kilmarnock 4-3.
It will be a relief to see Cameron Carter-Vickers back in competitive action alongside Auston Trusty (Liam Scales is suspended). Martin O’Neill’s options at fullback are limited, Kieran Tierney can be expected to play 90 minutes, while the manager has a decision to make on whether to play under-offer Alistair Johnston.
Arne Engels, also under-offer, gives Martin with the same decision as Alistair. Speaking to the media last week, Martin noted that Matt O’Riley’s attitude was excellent while he was being pursued by Brighton, and that he hoped the current crop would follow this example. This sounded like a subtle motivator for Arne and Alistair; I would prefer to see both play to give us the best chance of getting the season off to a flyer.
There is genuine anticipation to see Kasper Hogh, who will be fully fit and is therefore certain to make his debut. Camilio Duran is also certain to start, most likely on the wing. Here we go, for six in a row!
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Lask shall be first and first shall be lask!
We go to work again
HH
C’mon the Hoops.
COYBIG!!!
“However, just four years later, the club was relegated back to the second division, followed by relegation to the 3. Liga in 2012 due to a license withdrawal caused by bankruptcy. The club was taken over by a consortium of local entrepreneurs called “Friends of LASK” in December 2013. By this time the club was on the verge of being shut down, and the players received no salary. ”
Bit of a Hun background.
It was the best of times it was the worst of times.
“Here we go, for six in a row!”
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Yep, the “in a row” push is well under way. Old firm bragging rights is where it’s all at!
Forget about any European ambitions – think what those nasty extra games might do to our domestic form!
Onwards and backwards!
richard foster on clyde last night was asked about mcinness behavior.
he said he understands it because
hearts lost the league due to a dodgy var decision.
i thought they didnt win it, from a winning position because they didnt gain enough points.
i am going to love seeing that flag tonight.
love it.
and girfu the lot of them that cant handle the truth
https://youtu.be/M0giTxAyOik
MO’Ns presser on 31st July and as usual MO’N gives us either directly or having to read between the lines the best communication directly from the club
Utopia for MO’N would be holding onto his top players plus adding quality additions to the squad, as he says then real life at Celtic during a transfer window rarely is utopian
MO’N then cites the recent experience of Matt O’Reilly who Played and trained with maximum effort right unto his point of departure, it appears to me MO’N indicating for Johnston and Engles to stay until after C/L qualifier giving him and the squad the best chance of qualifying, the concern I would have that would leave little time to get the quality in if hopefully we secure qualification for the group league stages, as MO’N says a difficult balancing act
Going tonight to support the team a win is must of course, if Duran and Hogh start goals for both would be a dream start
COYBIG
LASK are not European heavyweights although they are probably a professionally and efficiently run club. There is ample time to get properly prepared and if that means making more signings, then make them. LASK won’t simply open the door and wave us in so we will need to earn our victory. So what; no excuses for us …..we have run out of those .
We’ve got no more than a couple of days to get new talent in the door, onto the training pitch and into the team ahead of the LASK tie.
We oughtn’t lack motivation to close the deals.
Equally, selling clubs must be aware that their players are at peak price this week, after which Celtic (and other clubs in the same situation) will be less inclined to push the boat out.
Surely we can close a few deals now.
SurelyCSC
Hearts with a spurious claim for Findlays red card the ref gave a foul it was a denial of obvious goalscoring opportunity he should get a 3 game ban, Trusty was sent off 40yds from goal with kyzaridis in trusty’s face celebrating
glass.
perennial question.
would you be ok to concentrate on european ambition s first as a priority ?
that in a row stuff is less important and a last 16 in the champions league would be better ?
is that your thinking ?
Get good players in pronto Celtic
If we fail to navigate the Austrians, will it be
Lask – of the summer whines ?
NorahBatty CSC
Judging by some posts on here, if we win our CL tie, it will be because Lask were useless; if we lose, it will be because we were useless.
Pathetic.
capacity 60,411.
the hearts game had hundreds of people sitting on stairs and standing in the passageways.
sold out . not an empty seat to be seen.
minimum segregation and even the hertz section looked over stacked.
official attendance – 59.060
something isnt working right in gathering attendance data.
sold out tonight 730 kick off.
attendance will be 58.800 ish
Aye Smokey, they’re putting their hedges on early this season 😉
quadrophenian 🤣
Matchday 1
A quandary at Celtic two star players in the exit door , do they play or not? Neither West Ham or Everton in Europe, that’s Celtic’s job, and the moves can wait till we get the prices right.
Four weeks to go, MON’s words “quality over quantity” “working hard in the background “ sound very, very familiar. His interview on CelticPlayer is very funny.
We know the ‘annual stadium refresh’ has happened unfortunately, we’ve no idea yet of ‘structural change’ and don’t know what, if anything has improved the “recruitment process” – we’re 12 players lighter. A busy summer right enough, no structure in place to sign development buy low sell high types. It’s MON’s glory year with specific ‘quality’ buys.
Not sure whether I’m looking forward more to the new players, or the new Celtic pie 🥧 They’ve ‘ listen very carefully’ to what we say, splashed the paint, refreshed the concourses, and we’ve even got sausages in the pies, – World class links?
Sinasalo
Johnston
CCV
Trusty
Tierney
Engels
Calmac
McCowan
Forrest
Høgh
Duran
or thereabouts CSC
Less is more,
In
Camilo Duran
Kasper Høgh
Out
Daizen Maeda
Luis Palma
Stephen Welsh
Hayato Inamura
Shin Yamada
Odin Holm
Maik Nawrocki
Marcelo Saracchi
Keletchi Iheanacho
Junior Adamu
Joel Mvuka
Ben Arthur
Julian Araujo
Tomas Cvancara.
Possibles / probables
Arne Engels
AJ
Reo Hatate
Benni Nygren
Johnny Kenny
Paulo Bernardo
Michel-Ange Balikwisha
Priority list,
GK, CM, LB and RW, outwith who might leave
Net spend – Nil
Dermot Desmond here for 33 in a row 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪 👍
LASK signed a player Freckleton who was released by St Mirren, if the huns beat the Polish team, they play Larne or Iberia 1999,which I thought was a TV channel….
Celtic 4 Rainjurz 2 1979…….10 men won the league
What a Monday night that was.👍🇨🇮🇨🇮🇨🇮🇨🇮🇨🇮
Lask , and by no means least , the Champions are up tonight …
Fly the Flag …
3-0 the hoops
SS
SKY advertising for the new season, clearly hasn’t recovered and decided to leave the Champions out of the goals montage.
Quite Bizarre CSC
I’m sure there will be no complacency v Lask among our players and coaching staff . Let’s hope those tasked with recruiting a stronger Celtic to overcome Lask, avoid any charges of complacency in the commission of their duties.
GlassTwoThirdsFull on 3rd August 2026 12:14 pm
“Here we go, for six in a row!”
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Yep, the “in a row” push is well under way. Old firm bragging rights is where it’s all at!
______________________________
Glass, if you don’t like what Paul chooses to write on his own blog, perhaps you should seek your online entertainment and engagement elsewhere. 🤔 Maybe even start your own blog of negative vibes, a home for les miserables…
the Bada Bing on 3rd August 2026 12:38 pm
if the huns beat the Polish team, they play Larne or Iberia 1999,which I thought was a TV channel….
——
Nice for them. If they get Larne their fans don’t need to leave Ireland on the bigot ferry. If Iberia 1999 they get to play a team 13 years older than themselves.
On the potential departures of Engels and AJ, and the amount of time we have to replace them with CL ready players if we manage to persuade them to help us qualify for the CL before they leave…
Surely we have enough money in the bank to secure two good quality replacements even today, while AE & AJ are still with us, knowing that they will leave after the CL play-off for a total of around £30-35M, or hopefully a little more?
This would give the new players an extra couple weeks at least to get settled in to the club and team environment (training etc.) and to sort out their immediate living arrangements. It would allow a little longer for a smooth integration into their new team, and I’m sure they should benefit from meeting the quality players they have been brought in to replace.
We have the funds in the bank, let’s use them to our benefit. There will be much more going back into the account once AE & AJ are sold than we are ever likely to spend on their replacements, so it’s a relatively small hit on the balance for a couple of weeks.
I get that we can’t control when players leave but if AJ and Engels are not in the mix for LASK they MUST be replaced for the play off, plus a tough midfielder. We also need cover asap for Keiran who is injury prone.
BIGCHIPSUK
Quality players don’t come to Celtic leave the money in the bank.
Celtic clearly set a Høgh Baur for having both players in by matchday 1
Did the ghost of Neville Chamberlain do the negotiations on our behalf with Everton ?
Corporation tax must be paid how much was it for Tax year 25/26?
bournesouprecipe, team for the play-off?:
Sinisalo
Araujo
CCV
Trusty
Saracchi (the MSM have KT leaving too)
Hassan
CalMac
Nygren
Ox
Duran
Høgh
Hmmmm? 🫢
Motherwell v Freiburg
Hearts learn fate
The Jambos will take on Austrian side Rapid Vienna or Estonians Paide if they end up in the Conference League.
Hibs out the hat
Swedes IFK Gothenburg or Belgian outfit Gent lie in wait for Hibs if they make it through.
Rangers v Jablonec or RFS
And finally it’s Czech side Jablonec or RFS of Latvia for the Ibrox side – but they will hope it doesn’t come to that.
An Dun
Private flight from Berlin to Glasgow thought to be a Celtic signing turned out to be Rudolph Hess
Why don’t we just get a couple of guys in the day before we play LASK?
the Bada Bing on 3rd August 2026 12:38 pm
LASK signed a player Freckleton who was released by St Mirren, if the huns beat the Polish team, they play Larne or Iberia 1999,which I thought was a TV channel
____
that’s a good draw for the Huns, if they beat the Polish boys. I don’t think that will be an easy task.
Two weeks tomorrow, we play Lask. Usual scurrying around in a state of unpreparedness. 3-0 tonight with our two new boys scoring.