Celtic threw away an almost certain Champions League ticket in bizarre fashion on Tuesday evening. The Scottish champions took a 3-0 first-leg lead to LASK Linz and even went 0-1 up in the return, but crashed to a 5-1 defeat after extra time and must now continue in the Europa League.
At first, Celtic looked in complete control. Callum McGregor opened the scoring midway through the first half in Austria, which meant LASK needed four goals at that point just to force extra time.
LASK refused to give up and drew level before half-time through Moses Usor. They still faced an enormous task, but the home side kept chasing the upset and flew out after the break.
Robert Ljubicic made it 2-1 shortly after half-time and dragged all the tension back into the tie. When Samuel Adeniran then made it 3-1 about ten minutes later, Celtic started to wobble and belief surged around the Austrians.
From there, LASK kept pressing but had to wait a long time for the goal that would force extra time. It finally arrived deep into stoppage time, when substitute Florian Flecker headed home for 4-1 and sent the Raiffeisen Arena wild.
Extra time completed Celtic's nightmare. Shortly after the start of the second half of extra time, Adeniran let fly from long range and the ball flew into the far bottom corner: 5-1.
The striker then even had the chance to complete his hat-trick when LASK were awarded a penalty. Goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo kept Celtic alive a little longer with a save, but no late Scottish escape followed.
Celtic had let a comfortable position slip and must now settle for a place in the Europa League. LASK qualify for the Champions League for the first time in the club's history and, after Como (Italy) and Sabah (Azerbaijan), are the third debutants in this season's league phase.