The most important matches in Celtic's season are almost upon us. The Hoops will take on Austrian Bundesliga champions LASK over two legs for a spot in the Champions League league phase, thereby joining Europe's elite. Die Schwarz-Weißen will visit Glasgow on Wednesday night, before the decider takes place at Raiffeisen Arena in Linz next Tuesday.
Martin O'Neill's team come into the first leg in excellent form, most-recently demolishing Dundee United 4-0 at Tannadice in the League Cup on Saturday evening. However, he will be forced to make at least one change to his starting lineup and this is due to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Camilo Durán doubles the lead! 🍀
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It has come to light ahead of the match that the Englishman will missed both legs of the tie against LASK, as well as matchday one of the league phase, due to suspension. This is due to a red card the 33 year old picked up in December 2023. Back then, the Ox was sent off in the 90th minute as Beşiktaş beat Lugano 2-0 in a dead-rubber UEFA Conference League group game at Letzigrund in Zürich. Both teams had already been eliminated ahead of kick off.
Well, Oxlade-Chamberlain has not been registered by any club to feature in a UEFA competition subsequently. This includes last season when, because he signed for Celtic on 7 February, he did so too late to feature against VfB Stuttgart. Thus, the England international is yet to serve his suspension, meaning he remains banned for Celtic's next three European fixtures.
When asked about this on Saturday, manager O'Neill admitted that he was not on top of this situation until very recently:
"We weren’t aware of that at the time. Alex certainly didn’t make us aware of it, but he wouldn’t have known in fairness. I think he thought because there was a couple of games after that for his club team… but he didn’t get into the squad, therefore that doesn’t count."
Well, Celtic certainly have something of a history when it comes to European qualifiers and ineligible players. Back in 2014, Ronny Deila's team were hammered in a Champions League qualifier, demolished 4-1 by Legia Warszawa at Stadion Wojska Polskiego and then 2-0 at their temporary home of Murrayfield a week later.
However, during that match in Edinburgh, Bartosz Bereszyński was introduced as a substitute with just three minutes to go. The right-back was though suspended, having been sent off against Apollon Limassol on matchday six of the previous year's Europa League group stages. Thus, Celtic were awarded a 3-0 win and progressed on away goals, only to lose to Maribor in the subsequent round anyway. So, perhaps Celtic have just avoided their own Legia situation.
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