Celtic's Champions League Collapse: A Failure of Leadership and Desire

Celtic’s European collapse was branded a failure of desire, leadership and depth as Martin O’Neill’s side threw away a four-goal aggregate lead and crashed out of the Champions League play-off with a 5-1 hammering by LASK in Austria.

The defeat dumps Celtic into the Europa League. The inquest has started already.

“Those players were hiding”

Stiliyan Petrov, who knows O’Neill’s standards better than most from their time together at Celtic and Aston Villa, did not hold back.

“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, a club built on dominating the ball, unable to get any grip on the contest.

“Celtic try to dominate games and be in control. But there was nothing there,” Petrov continued. “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 criticism cut to the heart of Celtic’s identity: not just a bad night, but a failure of on-field authority when the tie was there to be managed.

Lennon questions physicality and mentality

Neil Lennon, another former Celtic captain and manager, turned his fire on the team’s physical levels and running power.

“Physically they weren’t up to it, running power they weren’t up to it,” said the Dunfermline manager. “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.”

Then came an image that will trouble supporters as much as the scoreline.

“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.”

A Celtic side, in August, chasing shadows and cramping before the final whistle. For Lennon, that spoke of deeper issues than tactics.

Brown slams lack of bench quality

If Petrov and Lennon questioned mentality and conditioning, Scott Brown went straight for squad building.

Celtic turned to their bench across the 120 minutes, sending on Liam Scales, Anthony Ralston, Dane Murray, Luke McCowan, Reo Hatate and Sebastian Tounekti. The impact, in Brown’s eyes, was negligible.

“I don’t think the subs made any impact on the game,” he 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 LASK’s energy and aggression surged as the game wore on, Celtic’s reinforcements offered no change of gear, no fresh authority. Brown’s message was blunt: the squad is not at the level required for this stage.

Schmeichel warns of “huge ramifications”

For Kasper Schmeichel, who lived through last season’s play-off failure in a Celtic shirt, the damage stretches beyond one tie.

“This is going to have huge ramifications,” the former Celtic goalkeeper said on 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.”

The financial blow is obvious. The reputational one, Schmeichel suggested, might be worse. Targets might look elsewhere. Existing players must now carry the weight of a furious support into a lesser competition.

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

If anyone hoped O’Neill would soften the verdict, they were quickly disabused. The 74-year-old, now beyond 300 games as Celtic manager across his spells, ranked this as one of his most agonising nights.

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

“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.”

The turning points were clear in his mind: chances spurned, lifelines handed over, momentum surrendered. Once LASK sensed weakness, they tore into Celtic.

Asked if his squad was strong enough, O’Neill parked the wider debate but did not downplay the stage.

“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.”

For now, the manager owns the collapse. The structural questions will not wait long.

McGregor: “We got what we deserved”

Inside the dressing room, there were no excuses either. Captain Callum McGregor’s assessment matched the anger in the stands.

“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.”

From 4-0 up in a Champions League play-off to Europa League exile, Celtic have turned a position of strength into a full-blown crisis of confidence. The verdict from their own greats is brutal.

Now comes the only question that matters: who in that dressing room is ready to answer it?