'My team, my responsibility' - Martin O'Neill responds to Celtic's shock Champions League collapse

LASK capitulation among veteran manager’s worst nights at Celtic

Martin O’Neill did not seek refuge on a night when Celtic’s Champions League hopes evaporated in spectacular fashion in Austria. Instead, the veteran manager accepted full responsibility for his side’s second leg implosion against LASK Linz.

The Scottish champions had travelled to the Raiffeisen Arena with a three-goal advantage in the tie and seemingly with one foot in the league phase. And despite take an early lead through Callum’s McGregor’s deflected effort from distance, the visitors surrendered that four-goal advantage over a gruelling 120 minutes.

A slack back-pass from Benjamin Nygren presented Moses Usor with a gift to pull a goal back in the tie as he produced a composed finish before Robert Ljubcic was given too much time and space to fire home a second for the hosts on the night.

Celtic’s chief tormentor, Samuel Adeniran then cracked the underside of the crossbar. He did eventually get on the scoresheet just shy of the hour mark after sweeping home from 25-yards with an excellent first-time strike.

LASK were beginning to turn the screw and Florian Flecker forced extra-time when he drilled home a rebound in the 90th minute after Viljami Sinisalo’s tremendous initial save from Alemao’s attempt. Celtic were out on their feet as Adeniran’s thunderbolt completed a monumental comeback. He could even afford the luxury of missing a late spot-kick, which was saved by Sinisalo.

“We were really disappointing and that's obviously down to me,” a despondent O’Neill said. “Of course it is [down to me]. I'm responsible for the team. I'm responsible for it. I'm the manager of the side.”

There was no ambiguity in O’Neill’s assessment. He acknowledged a club of Celtic’s stature should not surrender a four-goal advantage in any European tie.

“From the position that we were in, we shouldn't even have been going into extra time,” he added. “Whether it's tactics, whether it's fitness, whether it's just everything perhaps. We shouldn't have done that.”

Concerns raised over squad depth

The manner of this defeat will inevitably raise concerns about Celtic’s squad depth. As the game progressed, O’Neill was forced into what he described as “running repairs”, while the Austrians continued to pile on the pressure.

Asked whether a lack of sufficient options had contributed to the collapse, the 74-year-old accepted that the game had exposed their shortcomings.

He conceded: “These type of games show you that we have obviously a lot of work to do in that aspect. You can cover over cracks in certain stages. But overall, these games are a real, real test for you. Unfortunately we failed that test tonight.”

Another qualifying failure as defeats ranks among O’Neill’s worst nights

This costly setback extends a deeply frustrating pattern for Celtic, who have now failed in six successive Champions League qualifying campaigns.

Quizzed on whether that represented evidence of something systematically wrong at the club, O’Neill replied: “I really don't know. I’m responsible for this one.”

O’Neill has experienced almost every variety of triumph and disappointment during a career spanning more than four decades. He admitted this was among his worst nights.

“Without a doubt,” he said. “This was a qualifying game, one which we should have been able to get through and we didn't. That’s my responsibility. We know that we are a million miles from the finished article. But you’re going into a game, you're 3-0 up in a match. You just scored. You should have been out of sight.”