Celtic's Champions League Blow: Martin O'Neill Reacts

Martin O'Neill did not bother dressing it up. Missing the Champions League league phase for a second consecutive season, he admitted, is a hammer blow – not just to pride, but to Celtic’s pulling power in the transfer market.

He knows exactly what that means.

"We know we are a million miles away from the finished article; that's absolutely true," he said, still raw from the collapse. "We thought that anyway, regardless. But we felt that if we qualified for the Champions League, there would be players that would be wanting to come on that very basis. That's not going to be the case. But we'll see."

The frustration comes from what Celtic thought they were building. They had played with conviction in the first leg. They believed there was a platform. Then LASK tore it all down.

O'Neill pointed to the contrast himself.

"When I see that we're short – and maybe talking about a million miles away – we played brilliantly the other night, brilliantly in the game; they [LASK] were a fine side too, scored some brilliant goals. And we came up well and truly short – particularly in the second half."

The numbers were brutal. LASK rained shots on the Celtic goal: 40 efforts, 4.8 expected goals, 10 big chances carved out. It was one-way traffic for long spells, a siege Celtic never really escaped.

Celtic’s response? Eight shots across 120 minutes. An xG of just 0.5. Almost nothing to cling to.

The scoreline hurt. The manner of it cut deeper.

"I'm responsible for this one. Without a doubt," O'Neill said, taking the defeat squarely on his shoulders. "Naturally, it took me a long time to get over the UEFA Cup final in 2003, but this was majorly disappointing. In the context of things, one was a final which it would have been terrific to win; this was a qualifying game which we should have been able to get through."

That is the sting: this was not a showpiece occasion against Europe’s elite. This was a hurdle Celtic expected to clear – and needed to clear – to sell a vision to the next wave of signings.

Now, with the Champions League door slammed shut again, O'Neill must convince players to join a project he openly admits is "a million miles" from completion, without the lure he had hoped would do the talking for him.