Champions League Qualifiers: Live Updates

LASK vs. Celtic Glasgow – LIVE starting at 9 p.m.

LASK will host Celtic Glasgow.(Bild: GEPA)

Playoff round of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers. After a 0–3 loss in the first leg, LASK needs a miracle at home against Celtic Glasgow. We’re covering the match live—see the live updates below.

Here’s the live ticker:

Here are the starting lineups:

Celtic coach Martin O’Neill warns that it will take a soccer miracle for LASK to advance to the Champions League. The Linz team heads into the playoff second leg against the Scottish champions trailing 0–3. “We definitely won’t give up. If we play well and score a goal, that can make a big difference,” said coach Dietmar Kühbauer, striking a note of cautious optimism.

  But the realist in him also led Kühbauer to say: “We need an extraordinary performance.” To that end, the stadium spectators—16,500 tickets had been sold as of Monday afternoon—will see an Austrian champion team geared toward attack. “We have to take more risks in the game. That doesn’t mean playing wide open, but we can’t just sit back and wait. Our goal is to start the game strong and impose our style on them,” Kühbauer emphasized.

LASK Coach Didi Kühbauer(Bild: GEPA)

  Once again, the coach credited his team with a strong performance despite the 0–3 loss. “It sounds strange when I say this, but in terms of their performance, I couldn’t fault the team. If we put in a similar performance with the necessary finishing touch, then we’ll see what happens.” As long as the dream of the Champions League lives on, even Kühbauer—a passionate tracksuit wearer—will stand on the sideline in a suit. “I’m neither better nor worse in a suit. But I’ll be running around in a suit tomorrow, too. If it helps, I’ll wear one for the rest of my life,” said Kühbauer.

’sUnlikely ComebackAccording to the statistics, the starting position is virtually hopeless. Austrian teams have only managed to overcome a three-goal deficit (or more) in European competition twice—back in the early days of soccer. Rapid took advantage of home-field advantage on both occasions. In 1957, the Green-Whites overcame a 1–4 deficit against AC Milan in the first round of the Champions Cup with a 5–2 home win, but lost the subsequent deciding match 2–4. Rapid actually advanced further in 1985, reaching the quarterfinals of the Cup Winners’ Cup. A 0–3 loss at Dynamo Dresden was followed by a 5–0 victory.

Champions League Draw on Friday
A successful comeback would be rewarded with a guaranteed appearance fee of 18.62 million euros. If they fail to advance, LASK will move on to the group stage of the Europa League with 4.29 million euros in consolation money. In addition, there is a €4.31 million entry fee for Europe’s second-most important club competition. The Champions League draw takes place on Thursday, and the Europa League draw on Friday. “It’s soccer—anything is possible. We have 90 minutes to turn this around. Hopefully, we’ll be able to score three goals,” said LASK forward Samuel Adeniran.

Celtic Remains Cautious
Both teams had the weekend off to better prepare for European competition. O’Neill dutifully tempered the euphoria following the perfect performance in the first leg. “The series is absolutely still wide open,” warned Celtic’s manager. His players are also aware of this. “I didn’t even have to tell the players in the locker room—they know it very well.” The decisive factor in the first leg was the higher quality of finishing. O’Neill praised his team’s “fantastic” goals, noting that they had shown what they were capable of. “We’re capable of scoring goals—which is probably what we’ll have to do,” said the 75-year-old coaching legend, looking ahead to the second leg.