O'Neill Calls Champions League a 'Big Carrot' After Celtic's Collapse Against LASK
Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has described the Champions League as "a big carrot" for attracting players to the club, days after watching his side blow a four-goal aggregate lead and crash out of the competition's play-off round.
Celtic led LASK 4-1 on aggregate at half-time of the second leg. They lost the tie. O'Neill admitted his side "should've been out of sight by half-time" and called the defeat "the major disappointment," telling BBC Sport that Celtic "did not do well in the second half."
The collapse was staggering in its scale. Celtic had won the first leg 3-0 in Austria — an unexpectedly commanding result that left them on the verge of ending a 22-year absence from the Champions League group stage, the tournament's headline phase, where Europe's elite clubs compete across the autumn (BBC Sport). Some of the players involved in that first-leg win were not alive the last time Celtic featured in the competition.
O'Neill had warned before the second leg that LASK would apply pressure, but insisted Celtic would not simply sit and defend their lead (BBC Sport. In the immediate aftermath of the exit, he accepted responsibility for the result (Livescore).
This is the second consecutive season Celtic have fallen at the play-off stage. They lost to Kairat Almaty in the previous campaign, an exit the club's own interim report described as "a bitter blow." That same report credited O'Neill and his backroom team with restoring stability at Parkhead (Celtic FC).
The summer transfer business around the LASK tie has drawn criticism from supporters. Celtic brought in Kasper Hogh, Camilo Duran, Haissem Hassan and Mika Baur, while Daizen Maeda departed for Ipswich Town and Arne Engels left for West Ham United (BBC Sport). O'Neill had indicated before the first leg that he did not anticipate further signings (BBC Sport), saying there was a "fairly decent" chance of no additions before the play-off (Yahoo Sports). The club also signed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in February 2026 after the midfielder had been training with Arsenal (Celtic FC).
Despite the back-to-back exits, O'Neill remains convinced the Champions League is what sells the club to recruits — particularly younger players. He pointed to the financial gulf between the Champions League and the Europa League, Europe's secondary club competition, whose prestige is less and whose rewards are smaller. The finance from the Champions League, he said, "is still the big thing."
What makes the collapse especially painful for Celtic supporters is the gap between what seemed certain and what arrived. A 4-1 aggregate lead at half-time of a play-off second leg, with a 22-year exile about to end, is not a position teams expect to lose from. O'Neill's task now is to convince players — and fans — that the carrot is still worth chasing, even after two seasons of slipping off the edge.
