The travelling Celtic party is heading to Austria today as they get set to face LASK in Linz in a little over 24 hours…
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Confidence is understandably high after a 3-0 win over the Austrian Champions at Celtic Park last Wednesday in the champions league play off first leg, but the players need to appreciate that the job is far from finished.
Let’s be honest we’d have bitten your hand off if you’d offered us a 3-0 result ahead of kick-off last week and indeed one minute after the match got underway. Now the task is not to throw away our advantage against a team who clearly have goals in them and are used to wining on their home turf.
3-0 might seem like a terrific cushion, and it should be, but we can’t afford to be in any way complacent as past scares at the same stage of this competition have taught us.
Two particular past occasions are proof of that, with the first of those being a trip to Israel to take on Hapoel Beer Sheva back in 2017.
We headed there with a three goal advantage after thumping the Israelis 5-2 in Paradise, and just like today, we travelled with great confidence of qualifying for the group stages.
Despite that confidence, Brendan Rodgers side almost wilted in the heat of Beer Sheva, due to a defensive calamity which seen the Israeli side storm into a two goal lead with more than 40 minutes of the game to play.
With the away goal rule in place, one more goal would have knocked the Hoops out, but they prevailed, but not after a nervous and frenetic 40 plus minutes which felt more like 80.
12 months later we were in the same position, only this time we faced the long trip to Kazakhstan to face Astana.
The first leg at Celtic Park couldn’t have gone any better, as a terrific Celtic performance resulted in a thumping 5-0 win. As far as anyone was concerned it was game set and match Celtic, with a place in the group stages all but secured.
Even when a Kristoffer Ajer own goal just before the hour mark put us a goal behind on the night, we still had a commanding four goal cushion.
That advantage was stretched even further when Scott Sinclair equalised ten minutes from the break to restore Celtic’s five goal advantage and with the added bonus of an away goal.
To have any chance of winning, the Kazakh side had to score six goals without conceding, but Celtic being Celtic suffered a second half defensive calamity which saw the home side go 4-1 in front with over 20 minutes remaining.
Goals by Oliver Ntcham, and Leigh Griffiths made the final score 4-3, and gave us a convincing 8-4 aggregate win in the end, but at one stage we were left doubting ourselves and biting our nails as we considered hiding behind the sofa!
All that said, I’m nevertheless confident we will be professional, and get the job done in Austria, especially with Martin O’Neill at the helm. However those past clashes in Israel and Kazakhstan should serve as a warning against any form of complacency among the Celtic class of 2026.
While we recognise that LASK have goals in them, so too must the Austrian Champions think the same about Celtic after last midweek’s masterclass in finishing that had football fans across the continent and around the World talking about Celtic’s quality finishing.
LASK have to throw everything it Celtic offensively but can’t risk leaving the back door wide open, which is more likely to happen as the game progresses without a goal for the home side. If Celtic can weather the early storm and keep LASK out for the first 20 minutes then the Austrian side’s hopes will start to fade as the clock becomes their enemy.
The travelling Celtic support will be doing everything they can to roar the team on and hopefully there will be great scenes of Celtic celebrations at the end of the tie. Fingers crossed.
COYBIG!
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
NEW BOOK LAUNCH FROM CELTIC STAR BOOKS…Celtic in the Fifties in two volumes, available to pre-order now…
Quick Tip – Add Celticshorts.com as your ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the Celtic content you value the most. It takes just a few seconds and you’ll notice the difference straight away! – Click HERE….Hail Hail!
