Celtic Set Champions League Records In LASK Defeat

Celtic suffered one of the most unbelievable capitulations in European football history on Tuesday night, falling 5–1 after extra time to Austrian side LASK. This led the Scottish champions to lose their UEFA Champions League Play-off tie 5–4 on aggregate, despite leading 4-0 at one stage in the second leg.

The loss drops Celtic into the Europa League and sets a devastating series of unwanted milestones in continental qualifying.

Blowing Four Goal Lead Sets Up New Record

Entering the second leg with a comfortable 3–0 cushion built at Parkhead, Celtic looked to have effectively sealed their berth in the league phase when captain Callum McGregor opened the scoring in Linz after 22 minutes. That strike extended Celtic’s total advantage to a commanding 4–0 aggregate lead.

What followed was a mid-match collapse unprecedented in Champions League qualifying.

LASK responded with five unanswered goals. Moses Usor pulled one back before half-time, followed by second-half strikes from Robert Ljubičić, Samuel Adeniran, and a 90th-minute heartbreaker from Florian Flecker that sent the tie into extra time at 4–4 on aggregate. In the 109th minute of extra time, Adeniran scored his second of the night to complete the miracle comeback for LASK.

While Barcelona famously overturned a 4–0 first-leg deficit against PSG in the 2016–17 knockout stage, no team in Champions League history had ever established a 4–0 aggregate lead during a second leg only to surrender five straight goals and be eliminated.

Celtic Make It Unlucky 13

The defeat made it the 13th time Celtic have failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage. That is a record for teams that have featured multiple times in the competition.

Club	Nation	UCL Main Stage Entries	Qualifying Eliminations
Celtic F.C.	Scotland	12	13
Dinamo Zagreb	Croatia	8	11
Fenerbahçe	Turkey	6	11
Red Bull Salzburg	Austria	5	10
BATE Borisov	Belarus	5	10
APOEL Nicosia	Cyprus	4	10
Rosenborg BK	Norway	11	9
Sparta Prague	Czechia	8	9

Of all nations, Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova leads the way with 20 failed qualification attempts. The club did make it to the group stage once, in 2021/22, where they managed an unlikely win at Real Madrid.

Madrid holds the record for the most Champions League trophies won at 15, but fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to the Moldovan minnows.

Failure Makes It Six In A Row

Celtic made it six consecutive failures to qualify for the Champions League, having fallen at the same hurdle last season.

• 2018/19: Lost to AEK Athens (3rd Round)
• 2019/20: Lost to CFR Cluj (3rd Round)
• 2020/21: Lost to Ferencváros (2nd Round)
• 2021/22: Lost to FC Midtjylland (2nd Round)
• 2025/26: Lost to Kairat Almaty (Play-off Round)
• 2026/27: Lost to LASK (Play-off Round)

During this period, the club has featured three times in the main competition, but this was through direct entry. Scotland’s coefficient has since declined, leading to the need for the country’s champions to play in the qualifying round.

Celtic’s are now tied with Rosenborg for the longest consecutive qualifying failures for teams that have featured in the Champions League at least ten times.

Of teams that have made multiple appearances, Fenerbahce leads the way with 11 consecutive failures. The Turkish club has failed on every attempt to qualify since 2009. They hope to end that streak on Wednesday when they take on Lyon after drawing the first match 1-1.

In another unwanted curse, Nottingham Forest’s Oliver Glasner became the seventh manager to lose his opening Premier League fixture at the weekend. Forest followed that up with another defeat in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday as Celtic were setting their own miserable record.