Former Celtic youth keeper Shay Given has issued his thoughts on Celtic's disastrous collapse in the Champions League on Tuesday night. The Bhoys took a four-goal lead over the course of their first leg with LASK and the first 23 minutes of the second leg in Linz.
But after five goals without reply and an extra time, Celtic bowed out of the Champions League, became the victims of a major upset, and not just because of their league, with LASK's squad worth only just over one third of the value of Celtic's squad.
Celtic are now condemned to Europa League football again, and the autopsy is well and truly underway, with the blame being shared between the board, Martin O'Neill and the players.
Shay Given issues verdict on Celtic collapse
Speaking on Premier Sports' Irish coverage of Celtic's defeat, former keeper Given said: "It's hard to put into words, it really is. They're 4-0 up on aggregate, there's no way on God's earth that this team LASK get back into this game at 4-0. Yes, they can grab one or two consolation goals, but they scored five goals on the night. It's incredible.
"You've got to give [LASK] credit, they looked fitter, stronger...yes, there were mistakes on the Celtic side.
"I just felt, at the start of the second half, they scored just after half-time, and they were scrambled. We mentioned about them playing in the wrong areas. You're inviting them on. You concede goals at the start of the second half and you keep trying to play out.
"I'm surprised with Martin that he didn't go, 'Wait a minute lads, the crowd's up, the pressure's coming heavily onto us. Let's just knock it up to Hogh and play it ugly at times, be more compact.'
"Get back into the game. They scored again in the 58th minute and the crowd were just [up]. It's hard to stop that, we've seen that before on European nights. With Celtic, it seems to be a bit of a hoodoo getting through the qualifying stage."
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