Wednesday, 26 August 2026 SourcesAbout🌓
🇬🇧 UK ▾
BREAKING
Sports

'We apologise to the fans' - Celtic throw away four-goal lead to crash out of CL

Sky Sports Football ·
'We apologise to the fans' - Celtic throw away four-goal lead to crash out of CL

Report as Celtic are dumped out of the Champions League after throwing away a four-goal aggregate lead to LASK; Celtic took the lead on the night through Callum McGregor but LASK scored five to deny them a spot in Thursday's draw; Celtic to play Europa League football again

Celtic suffered a stunning Champions League play-off collapse as LASK overturned a 3-0 first-leg deficit to win 5-4 after extra-time and send the Scottish champions crashing into the Europa League.

In one of the worst nights in Celtic's European history, the Hoops were up 4-0 on aggregate after Callum McGregor extended their 3-0 first-leg advantage early on in Austria.

Despite wobbling after goals from Moses Usor, Robert Ljubicic and a Samuel Adeniran stunner, Celtic were minutes from booking a place in Thursday's League phase draw before second-half substitute Florian Flecker headed home a 90th-minute equaliser to force extra-time.

Full of all the energy and desire that Celtic whimpered at the sight of, the momentum belonged to the Austrian champions. Adeniran struck from range again in the 109th minute to put LASK in front on aggregate for the first time.

He very nearly added salt to Celtic's wounds when he stepped up for a penalty moments later, after Reo Hatate fouled Krystof Danek deep, but Viljami Sinisalo kept the spot-kick out to give his side a lifeline.

It was a lifeline that went begging as the full-time whistle confirmed Celtic would miss out on the Champions League for the second consecutive season. Last season it was defeat on penalties at this stage to Kairat Almaty.

This year's failure, given the context of a four-goal aggregate lead, will take considerably longer to move on from.

Once again the Hoops will be involved in the Europa League league-phase draw on Friday.

20: LASK CHANCES! The first falls to Mbuyamba in the area, who can't quite match the flight of the ball to send it goalwards. Any touch on that and Lask would have had a goal. The second has Sinisalo worried, as it strikes the post.

21: GOAL! It's a smart, smart low strike from McGregor but it takes a nick off Andrade and flies past Jungwirth in the LASK goal.

32: GOAL! IT'S A GIFT! Celtic punished for complacent play at the back. Nygren passes a ball back into no man's land, putting it on a plate for Usor to stroke past Sinisalo.

48: GOAL! LASK LEAD! Lask are beginning to believe. Ljubicic beats Sinisalo from range with a superb low strike from the edge of the area.

58: GOAL! WHAT A FINISH!!! That is simply superb technique. No chance Sinisalo was getting anywhere near that. The LASK striker is teed up outside the box and curls home.

Read the full article on Sky Sports Football ›

5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.skysports.com — the content belongs to Sky Sports Football.

This story in other outlets

More from Sky Sports Football

See all ›

More in Sports

See all ›