LASK 5 CELTIC 1 AET (Agg: 5-4)
X-CERTIFICATE Celtic somehow managed to throw away a four-goal advantage to crash out of the Champions League after an embarrassing error-strewn display in Austria this evening.
Callum McGregor gave Martin O’Neill’s side a 1-0 lead on the night to make it 4-0 on aggregate.
And then the Hoops snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with a performance that was laced with unenforced mistakes and a monotonous succession of misplaced passes.
The Austrians scored four goals without interruption to take the game into extra-time as the Scottish champions teetered on the brink.
And the Hoops couldn’t respond after LASK hit the fifth goal to bring down the curtain on yet another humiliating European night for Celtic.
And yet it could have been so different. The Hoops came within a yard of a glorious start in the fifth minute when Yang Hyun-jun picked out Mika Baur after the German had made a clever run into the box.
The midfielder whipped in a low left-foot effort that beat the keeper, but edged just wide of the far post with Kasper Hogh too late as he slid in hoping to make contact.
In the 12th minute Auston Trusty caused alarm with two sloppy clearances in the box, but he was bailed out on both occasions by his team-mates.
Moments later, Hogh blew the opportunity to punish the Austrians when Celtic broke away at pace.
OFF TARGET…Kasper Hogh struggled to make an impression.
The Dane had options to play in a colleague, but elected to try a shot and his effort lacked pace and precision to unduly concern the grateful Lukas Jungwirth.
Hogh knew he should have done so much better.
In the 19th minute, the visitors escaped when a vicious drive smacked off Viljami Sinisalo’s right-hand post and Kieran Tierney cleared for a corner-kick.
Two minutes later, the Hoops scored a crucial opening goal to give them a 4-0 aggregate advantage.
Callum McGregor will undoubtedly claim the strike, but his low shot took a decisive touch off defender Andres Andrade before deflecting past the flummoxed netminder.
Yang, who had looked lively right from the off, picked up a pass from Tierney on the left and took off on a mazy run before knocking a ball back to his skipper.
McGregor hit it first-time and it looked as though Jungwirth was about to scoop up the attempt until the intervention from his team-mate.
PLAYING THE CAPTAIN’S PART…goalscorer Callum McGregor.
Alarmingly, a disastrous passback from Benjamin Nygren threw the hosts a lifeline when he presented them with a leveller in the 32nd minute.
Sinisalo picked out Cameron Carter-Vickers with a pass out of his penalty area and the centre-back rolled it to the Swede.
Nygren was horribly wayward with a ball back towards his own goal and it dropped perfectly for Moses Usor to roll into the inviting net.
It signalled an onslaught of pressure on the Celtic back lot who were not too fussy how they managed to clear their lines.
Hogh, who had also passed up another excellent opportunity before LASK’s goal, was lacking service through the middle while last week’s two-goal hero Camilo Duran rarely threatened as he helped out with defensive duties.
Celtic had to ride out the storm leading up to the interval with their opponents throwing everything at them as they desperately attempted to claw back another goal.
Thankfully, Sinisalo and Co held firm before the welcoming shrill of the half-time whistle.
Three minutes into the second-half, LASK claimed a second after Robert Ljubicic zipped a low drive from just outside the box that found the bottom left-hand corner of Sinisalo’s net.
There was a huge disconnect between the defence and midfield as a sea of red shirts kept up the pressure with Celtic pinned back and offering very little in the way of attack.
There was some respite when Nygren slid in Colby Donovan, but the right-back’s near-post effort was plucked out the air by Jungwirth.
In the 58th minute, Celtic gifted that Austrians a third goal after some more awful defending.
The hosts hit on the break on the left and the ball was knocked inside to powerhouse striker Samuel Adeniran who had the freedom of Linz before curling a 25-yarder past the stranded Sinisalo.
It was a stunning turnaround and O’Neill’s answer in the 63rd minute was to withdraw Nygren and Yang and throw on Reo Hatate and Sebastian Tounekti.
QUIET NIGHT…Camilo Duran, two-goal hero in the first leg, was rarely seen in Linz.
Sinisalo was forced into a brilliant flying save to defy Sascha Horvath in the 68th minute after Carter-Vickers had fluffed a clearance.
Quite rightly, the Finnish keeper showed his anger at the performance of the players in front of him.
Sinisalo was helpless moments later when a drive thumped off the underside of the crossbar and was scooped clear by Tierney.
It was the last action of the Scotland international who came off in the 71st minute to be replaced by Liam Scales while Luke McCowan also came on for Baur.
Next up, Dane Murray was given the nod to take over from Donovan in the 75th minute.
The game was taken to extra-time in controversial circumstances after VAR awarded a stoppage-time equaliser to Florian Flecker after he nodded in a rebound after Sinisalo had produced an incredible stop from another header.
The LASK player looked offside, but VAR gave it the okay after a review.
It was that sort of night for Celtic.
Carter-Vickers, who had been struggling, came off to be replaced by Anthony Ralston before the extra period got underway.
McGregor attempted gallantly to rally his troops and there was a passage of play with Celtic enjoying possession, but, almost inevitably, the final ball was awry to set off the Austrians on another raid on the exposed Sinisalo.
Hogh limped off at the break in extra-time, but had to soldier on with O’Neill utilising all his substitutes.
The end was in sight when McCowan was caught dwelling on the ball and it allowed Adeniran the chance to look up and hit a 25-yard drive low past Sinisalo who looked slow to react.
That came in the 109th minute before moments later Hatate gave away a penalty-kick, but Sinisalo was up to the task on this occasion and made a diving save to his left from Adeniran’s effort.
At the end of the night it didn’t matter as Celtic became the first team in the Champions League qualifiers to lose after holding a 3-0 advantage from the first leg.
It wasn’t the sort of history Martin O’Neill or his players had expected to make.
TEAM: Sinisalo; Donovan (sub: Murray 75), Carter-Vickers (sub: Ralston 91), Trusty, Tierney (sub: Scales 71); Nygren (sub: Hatate 63), McGregor, Baur (sub: McCowan 71); Duran, Hogh, Yang (sub: Tounekti 63).
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