Glasgow | Celtic stunned in Austria by LASK fightback

LASK 5 - 1 Celtic (LASK won 5-4 on aggregate)

Celtic suffered a second successive humiliating Champions League play-off exit as Austrian champions LASK overturned a four-goal aggregate deficit.

Author | Sean M

Stadium | Raiffeisen Arena

A low, fizzing strike from Samuel Adeniran in extra time, his second superb goal of the night, secured LASK’s place in Europe’s elite competition as Celtic dropped into the Europa League.

After 30 minutes of the second leg, Celtic held a four-goal advantage in the tie after Callum McGregor’s deflected effort. Yang Hyun-jun had created the opening with an intelligent run inside from the left before finding his captain with a perfectly weighted pass.

But a loose backpass from Benjamin Nygren offered LASK their first opening and Moses Usor took full advantage, calmly finishing to reduce the deficit. It was no more than the hosts deserved after an encouraging start.

Celtic then failed to withstand the pressure at the beginning of the second half.

Robert Ljubicic was given far too much time and space on the edge of the penalty area just two minutes after the restart and fired a low effort beyond Viljami Sinisalo and into the bottom corner.

View from the away end at LASK

The mood inside the stadium quickly changed from nervous anticipation to growing belief as LASK attacked with increasing intensity.

Sascha Horvath advanced down the left before finding Samuel Adeniran in a central position, with the forward sweeping home a sensational first-time finish from distance.

With 20 minutes remaining, Celtic were desperately attempting to withstand wave after wave of LASK attacks. Horvath and Adeniran were at the heart of the hosts' threat, with the latter striking the underside of the crossbar before Kieran Tierney cleared the rebound off the line.

A nervy Celtic support watches on

The rest of the game was played almost entirely in Celtic's half, with the Scottish champions pinned deep as they struggled to cope with everything LASK threw at them.

As the clock moved into added time, Florian Flecker followed up to force home Alemao's effort after Sinisalo had produced a spectacular save to claw the initial attempt away.

And an additional 30 minutes was played

Adeniran then struck a stunning 109th-minute rocket before being handed the chance to complete his hat-trick from the penalty spot. But Sinisalo again came to Celtic's rescue, diving low to palm the effort away.

How had Celtic thrown this one away? After such a promising start to the season domestically and even in the first-leg against LASK, suddenly there are huge questions over the players again.