Callum McGregor admitted sorry Celtic looked scared as he issued a grovelling apology for crashing out of the Champions League and sending £40million up in smoke on one of the worst nights of the club’s European history.
The Parkhead outfit suffered a 5-1 extra-time hammering at LASK to tumble out 5-4 on aggregate in the qualifying play-off for the second year running following last season’s humbling by Kazakh minnows Kairat Almaty.
Three-up from the first leg, Celtic went four goals ahead on aggregate in Linz when captain McGregor scored on 21 minutes.
However, they gave the Austrian double-winners a lifeline with Moses Usor levelling before the break and fell apart in the second 45 with goals from Robert Ljubicic, Samuel Adeniran and a 90th-minute effort from Florian Flecker taking it to extra-time.
Adeniran then scored the winner in the 109th minute before seeing a penalty saved by visiting keeper Viljami Sinisalo.
Celtic have now failed to make it to the group stage of European football’s top competition on six consecutive occasions when starting in the qualifying rounds, a nightmare run dating back to season 2018-19, which has seen them lose to AEK Athens, Cluj, Ferencvaros, FC Midtjylland, Kairat and now LASK.
McGregor told Amazon Prime: ‘We got what we deserved. We were passive all night. We actually looked scared to go and win the game.
‘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.
‘When you play like that, you can’t have any excuse whatsoever. We have to suck it up. We apologise to the supporters and the club because there is no way we should lose that game.
McGregor looks aghast after Celtic were humiliated in Austria
‘Now, you will see what kind of character is in there. There’s a lot at stake in terms of the Champions League and you could probably feel the nervousness – last week as well – but when you are so passive and go 1-0 up and it still doesn’t settle you, you can’t have any excuse. That’s on us.’
McGregor, though, refused to use a failure to recruit in key positions by the board as a reason for Celtic’s almost unbelievable collapse in Austria.
‘You fall at a big hurdle and these questions are going to get asked,’ he said. ‘It is as much on the players as anything else, to be honest. You cannot lose that game by such a big margin and start looking for excuses elsewhere.
‘You’ll now see what people are made of. You have to realise you are playing at a big club.’
Manager Martin O’Neill accepted full responsibility for his side’s capitulation at time-up.
‘We should have been out of sight by half-time,’ said O’Neill. ‘We scored a goal, missed two great opportunities and then gave them a lifeline just before half-time and then one just after it.
‘We conceded not good goals at all, but that’s my team and that is my responsibility.’
The Northern Irishman also admitted the hammering exposed the need for the squad to be strengthened further and it begs the question why further reinforcements were not brought in before this hugely lucrative tie.
Manager Martin O’Neill is frustrated as Celtic toil against LASK
‘I think these games show you we obviously have a lot of work to do in that aspect,’ he said. ‘These games are real, real tests for you and, unfortunately, we’ve failed that test tonight.
‘We know that we are a million miles from the finished article. That’s absolutely true. I think we thought that anyway.
‘I think I said last week that if you could qualify for the Champions League there would be players wanting to come on that basis. That’s not going to be the case, but we’ll see. Tonight we came up well and truly short, particularly in the second half.’
O’Neill admits the pain was nowhere near as bad as losing a UEFA Cup final to FC Porto, but was clear when asked whether the loss is one of the worst nights of his spells as boss.
‘I would say yeah, absolutely,’ he replied. ‘I’d put it down before losing the UEFA Cup final of 2003, but it is so disappointing.’
