Under the open skies of the Raiffeisen Arena, the Scottish champions experienced one of the darkest nights in their European history. After the fact that Celtic failed to qualify in Almaty in a penalty shoot-out last year, it was also a miracle.

Martin O'Neill's team inevitably collapsed at the other half and, practically without repairing the support, recognized painful lesions from the Austrian LASK from the zagal rakhunk 4:5 after the extra hour.

After the final whistle, the Celtic head coach did not face a barrage of criticism, protests and without any effort. Martin O'Neill is up to the press with maximum exposure to his knowledge and taking upon himself additional responsibility for the failure that cost the club a ticket to the group stage of the Champions League.

" Without a doubt,” O’Neill stated firmly.

The mentor honestly assessed his team’s performance, emphasizing that they are still far from their ideal form:.

“We know that we are still a million miles away from the finished statistics. This is absolutely true. I guess that's what we thought"

Beyond the sporting disappointment, this show has a significant legacy. Failure to reach the Champions League gives Celtic a hefty penny bonus, which will give a serious blow to the club's ambitions in the transfer market. Martin learned that qualification for the Champions League is fundamentally important in all aspects.

“It seems that I already said last year that if it were possible to qualify for the Champions League, then there would be competitors who would like to come on this basis. “It won’t happen, but it won’t matter,” the coach stated with regret, adding that the team played very poorly.

The Gravs also did not hide behind the coach’s back. Team captain Callum McGregor was merciless in his assessment of his teammates:.

" We were passive all evening. We looked like we were squealing, eager to win the game. If you lead 1:

0 and it won’t give you any peace of mind, you have a lot of excuses, and it’s our fault. You can't joke about the truth of the day. We vibrate in front of our patients and the club. It was our fault that we lost that match,” summed up Callum.

Celts will play in the main stage of the European League. The drawing will take place on September 28 at 14:00 Kyiv time. The championship after two rounds, additional? I couldn’t go to the first place, having 6 points in my asset.