Celtic's Collapse in Austria: A Trust Shredded

Celtic’s collapse in Austria was more than a bad night. It was an accusation.

From 4-0 up on aggregate to a 5-1 defeat by LASK and a brutal exit from the Champions League play-off, Martin O’Neill’s side not only lost a tie they had already all but won – they shredded the trust that surrounded them.

“Those players were hiding”

Few pulled their punches. Stiliyan Petrov, who knows O’Neill’s standards better than most from their time together at Celtic and Aston Villa, watched the unraveling with disbelief.

“You have to stand up and be counted, show character, be able to deal with the pressure,” he said on Amazon Prime. “Those players were hiding.

“When they had to take responsibility with the ball, they didn’t take it. They were losing the ball very easily. LASK were better in second balls, more aggressive. They wanted it more.”

That was the theme of the night. Celtic, usually the side that dictates, shrank when the game demanded control.

“Celtic try to dominate games and be in control. But there was nothing there,” Petrov added. “They couldn’t take the sting out the game, they couldn’t slow the game down.

“Sometimes you need big players to do that. You need players to control that, control the team. You have to stand up, be brave and be strong.

“You have to run more, you have to close people down, you have to make decisions on the pitch, important decisions and important moments that make the difference. Those decisions were not there.”

The indictment was as much about mentality as it was about tactics. When LASK turned up the tempo, Celtic folded.

Lennon questions fitness and fight

Neil Lennon, another former Celtic captain and manager, went straight for the physical and mental edge that used to define O’Neill’s teams.

“Physically they weren’t up to it, running power they weren’t up to it,” he said. “LASK were the better team and they wanted it more, and that’s not something you can say about a Martin O’Neill team very often.”

The Dunfermline manager then highlighted a worrying image in the second half.

“Second half I saw three or four players go down with cramp. It’s only 65-70 minutes into the game. That’s a worry for me.

“It could be a physical thing, it could be a psychological thing. For me it’s a sign of not being strong. They looked exhausted at times.”

Cramp, at that stage of a season-defining tie, told its own story. Celtic were not just outplayed. They were overrun.

Brown turns spotlight on Celtic’s bench

As the game stretched into extra time, O’Neill turned to his bench. Liam Scales, Anthony Ralston, Dane Murray, Luke McCowan, Reo Hatate and Sebastian Tounekti all came on. The response was flat.

For Scott Brown, another former Celtic captain, the substitutions underlined a deeper issue: the squad simply is not strong enough.

“I don’t think the subs made any impact on the game,” Brown told BBC Radio Scotland. “You want something from them – running power, a bit of calmness on the ball – and we didn’t get that.

“They are bringing players in that are actually in the starting 11 but it shows you, on that bench, they need better quality players to come on.”

On a night when Celtic needed fresh legs and clear heads, they got neither.

Schmeichel warns of “huge ramifications”

Falling from the Champions League into the Europa League always hurts a club of Celtic’s size. For Kasper Schmeichel, who was in goal for last season’s play-off defeat, this felt like a blow that will linger.

“This is going to have huge ramifications,” he told Amazon Prime. “The Champions League is unique and the Europa League doesn’t have the same prestige. It impacts players’ lives and particularly the players that maybe we were looking to sign, that could have an impact on it.

“I know it’s going to be a really, really hard reaction towards the players, towards the management.

“It’s going to be a monumental task for them to motivate themselves and to get the fans back on side. Because you saw at the end, it wasn’t pleasant scenes. And we saw what happened last season, it’s not pleasant. And it’s not pleasant to be a player in that environment either.”

Recruitment, morale, the relationship with the stands – all of it now feels fragile.

O’Neill: “That’s my team and that’s my responsibility”

For O’Neill, a manager who has overseen more than 300 games at Celtic, this was a wound that cut deeper than most.

“I would say absolutely, yes,” the 74-year-old said when asked if it was among his most painful nights. “I’d put it down before the disappointment of losing the Uefa Cup final in 2003, but it’s so, so disappointing.”

The frustration came from how controllable the tie once looked.

“We should have been out of sight by half-time. We scored a goal, which was great, we missed two great, great opportunities. And then we give them a lifeline just before half-time and then one just after it. And they come roaring back.

“And obviously we conceded, from our viewpoint, not good goals at all. But that’s my team and that’s my responsibility.”

Pressed on whether his squad is strong enough, O’Neill pushed the wider debate down the road but did not disguise the scale of the failure.

“These are tough games. And it might only be a Champions League qualifying game, but it felt like a Champions League game. I thought they were a fine side. But that doesn’t matter. We should have been able to have seen it through. And we didn’t do. Talking about the squad, that’s for another day.”

McGregor: “We got what we deserved”

Inside the dressing room, there was no attempt to sugar-coat it. Captain Callum McGregor called it as he saw it.

“We got what we deserved,” he told Amazon Prime. “I thought we were so passive. All night. We actually looked scared to go and win the game, and when you are 3-0 up it’s psychological.

“To be honest I didn’t think we were that good in the first leg either. We scored at good times and kind of got away with it. You go 3-0 and you think you’ve got a real chance but when you play like that you can’t have any excuse whatsoever.

“We have to suck it up, apologise to the supporters and the club because there is no way that we should lose that game … Now you’ll see what kind of characters are in there.”

That last line hangs over Celtic now. A four-goal cushion thrown away, the Champions League gone, the Europa League ahead. The next few weeks will reveal whether this was a one-off implosion – or the night that exposed something far more structural inside O’Neill’s team.