Viljami Sinisalo has admitted Celtic’s players were left “shell-shocked” after their extraordinary Champions League collapse against LASK.
Martin O’Neill’s side arrived in Austria protecting a commanding 3-0 first-leg advantage and strengthened their grip on the tie by scoring again in Linz to move four goals clear on aggregate.
What followed was a remarkable capitulation as LASK fought back, forced extra time and eventually completed a comeback which dumped Celtic into the Europa League.
Sinisalo struggled to comprehend what had unfolded afterwards.
“Obviously it’s raw; I’m kind of speechless in a way,” Sinisalo said via Daily Record. “It’s very hard for me to come here and explain that. I’ll try though because I don’t think the people coming here to support us deserved that. It’s unacceptable.”
The goalkeeper missed Martin O’Neill’s immediate post-match reaction after being randomly selected for UEFA’s doping procedure. When he eventually returned to the Celtic dressing room, silence told the story.
“I walked into a changing room that was silent,” he said. “It’s a tough moment for everyone, individually and collectively. Probably the toughest moments of our careers and the only way of getting over that is sticking together and going again on Saturday.
“It’s a cliche, people don’t necessarily want to hear that. I would hate to be hearing that if I was a fan, but ultimately that’s the reality. What we’ve done there, we can’t do anything about it anymore. It was in the 120 minutes that we should have done more, and it’s tough to put it into words.”
Asked whether the defeat was even more painful than last season’s Champions League qualifying exit against Kairat, Sinisalo replied: “Probably.
“Obviously I wasn’t personally part of that. I was on the bench for those games and you feel it when it happens. We’re shell-shocked. It’s probably up there with the most disappointing things I’ve had to experience. Hopefully there won’t be any more of them.”
Sinisalo rejected the suggestion Celtic had become complacent after stretching their aggregate advantage to four goals, although he acknowledged LASK’s first response changed the momentum.
“I don’t think it was complacency,” he said. “We scored the first goal and you’re thinking, ‘Four goal lead, that’s it.’ They get one at a crucial time for them, which kind of shifts the momentum.”
Perhaps most concerning was Sinisalo’s admission that Celtic lost their footballing identity as the pressure increased.
Instead of continuing to play through LASK, the Hoops increasingly went direct – an approach the Finland international believes played directly into the Austrian side’s hands.
“I think we lost a bit of the identity of the team that we want to be,” he said. “We want to be a passing football team. Sometimes in the game you feel something and you make decisions to go longer. That’s the game they want. They’re big, they’re strong. If we start going long, it’s kind of playing into their hands a little bit.
“Did I feel we could score? Yes, especially the first half of the extra time. I thought we got back to doing what we should do and passed the ball. You could see we were in control.
“We lost control and came away from what we want to be and what a good team we can be by passing the ball. We came away from doing that. That’s why the game shifted.”
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