The Scottish champion entered the second leg in Linz with a 3-0 advantage over the first leg, and seemed on his way to qualifying when his captain, Callum McGregor, opened the scoring in the 21st minute.
While Celtic fans were chanting, “We will celebrate in the Champions League,” the match was turned upside down, and dreams of qualifying were dramatically dashed.
Coach Martin O’Neill’s team collapsed after LASK equalized in the 32nd minute, before scoring four more goals to achieve a sweeping 5-1 victory in the match, depriving its guest of qualification, so that Celtic headed towards a new season in the European League.
Musa Osor scored the equalizer 1-1, before Robert Ljubicic gave the hosts the lead in the 48th minute, and Samuel Adeniran increased the score with a third goal in the 58th minute.
In the 90th minute, substitute Florian Flicker scored a goal from close range, which was awarded after reviewing the video assistant referee technology, to equalize the score on aggregate and force additional time. There, Adeniran scored his second personal goal and the winning goal in the 109th minute.
LASK almost came out with a bigger victory, but missed a penalty kick in the 115th minute.
McGregor told Amazon Prime, “We got what we deserved. We were passive throughout the match, and it seemed that we were afraid to advance and secure the victory.”
He added, “We have to bear responsibility for this result. We apologize to our fans and the club, because we should never have lost this match.”
