LASK stages dramatic comeback to lead 5-4 on aggregate over Celtic in Champions League playoff

Four goals down on aggregate. Playing at home, sure, but needing the kind of miracle that football occasionally delivers and almost never delivers cleanly. LASK Linz looked at the scoreboard, looked at Celtic, and apparently decided that math was more of a suggestion than a rule.

On August 25, 2026, the Austrian club completed one of the most remarkable comebacks in recent UEFA Champions League playoff history, winning the second leg 4-1 in regular time to level the aggregate at 4-4, then scoring again in extra time to take a 5-4 aggregate lead over Celtic FC at Raiffeisen Arena in Linz.

How the collapse unfolded

Celtic had done everything right in the first leg on August 19 at Celtic Park, cruising to a 3-0 victory. Callum McGregor opened the scoring in the 21st minute of the second leg, effectively pushing Celtic’s aggregate advantage to 4-0. At that point, LASK needed five unanswered goals to advance.

Then Moses Usor pulled one back in the 32nd minute. Robert Ljubičić struck in the 48th minute, making it 2-1 on the night, 4-2 on aggregate. Samuel Adeniran added a third in the 58th minute, cutting the deficit to a single goal on aggregate at 4-3.

The equalizer came in the cruelest possible fashion. Florian Flecker scored in the 90+1 minute, dragging the aggregate score to 4-4 and sending the match into extra time. LASK found the net again during extra time, taking a 5-4 aggregate lead and advancing to the next phase of the Champions League.

The weight of the moment

This was the first competitive meeting between LASK Linz and Celtic FC. Celtic have played in Champions League group stages, competed in a European final in 2003, and carry the institutional memory of being the first British club to win the European Cup back in 1967.

The match was officiated by Szymon Marciniak, the Polish referee who has handled some of the biggest fixtures in world football.

Comebacks from four goals down on aggregate are vanishingly rare in European knockout competition. The most famous example in recent memory remains Barcelona’s 6-1 demolition of Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, when the Spanish giants overturned a 4-0 first-leg deficit.

What went wrong for Celtic

Conceding four goals in roughly 60 minutes of football, from the 32nd minute to the 90+1 mark, suggests a defensive structure that didn’t just crack under pressure but disintegrated entirely.

The gap in prize money between the Champions League and the Europa League, or worse, the Conference League, runs into the tens of millions of euros. For a club operating in the Scottish Premiership, where broadcast revenues trail far behind England’s top flight, Champions League income isn’t a bonus. It’s a structural pillar of the budget.

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