Callum McGregor admits Celtic were “scared” during tonight’s humiliation at the hands of LASK as they failed to qualify for the Champions League again.
Despite having a 3-0 lead from the first leg, and increasing it to four early on, the visitors to Austria collapsed. They looked tired during the second half and unable to stand up to the home side’s onslaught, conceding five on the night including Samuel Adeniran’s extra time winner.
The skipper admits his team were nervous and turned in a passive display.
He told Amazon: “I think we were so passive all night and actually looked scared to get in the game. And then when you see them up in the tie, it’s psychological.
“I didn’t think we were that good in the first half either. We scored at good times, and we kind of got away with it. But then you go three-nil and you think, right, you’ve got a good chance.
“But when you play like that, you can’t have any excuse whatsoever. We have to suck it up. We apologise to supporters, to the club, because there’s no way that we should lose that game. We’ve got to stick together, we’ve got to suck it up, and now you’ll see what kind of character is in there.”
Celtic now need a response and McGregor says it will no become evident what the squad is made of.
Asked if there is a danger the result derails the start to the season, he said: “Yes, absolutely. Like I said in there, you’ll now see what people are made of in terms of what we want to achieve this season. We have to take that and you have to now realize that you’re playing at a big club, you’re playing at Celtic, and now you have to bounce back. As disappointing as it is, you now have to show the action and that’s what Celtic’s all about.”
Often at this time of the season, questions can be made on whether Celtic have acted swiftly enough in the transfer market to equip themselves for the Champions League.
This time, they spent the best part of £30million on Kasper Hogh, Mika Baur, Haissem Hassan and Camilo Duran. McGregor admits a lack of transfer activity can’t be blamed this time.
He added “No, I guess not. I think we signed where everyone’s happy for two or three weeks and then you fall at a big hurdle, these questions are going to get asked. This is as much on the players as anyone. You can’t lose that game by such a big margin and then start looking for excuses elsewhere. We have to accept that.”