Celtic have a proud European historical past, however glory on the continent has been matched by a string of humiliating defeats by the hands of smaller golf equipment.
The Scottish giants received the European Cup in 1967, reached the ultimate once more three years later and misplaced the UEFA Cup ultimate to Jose Mourinho’s Porto in 2003.
However Celtic have additionally been humbled on a number of events and we’ve ranked their seven most abject European defeats of the twenty first century.
7. Borussia Dortmund 7-1 Celtic (2024)
The chasm between the Have and Have Nots of European soccer means Celtic are by no means too distant from an old style pumping towards one of many large boys.
We might’ve chosen just a few outcomes right here, however transport seven to a Dortmund crew eradicated from the Europa League by Rangers just a few years beforehand was fairly shaming.
Daizen Maeda cancelled out Emre Can’s early penalty in a frantic begin, however it proved to be the briefest of respites for Celtic.
Adeyemi ran riot with a deadly hat-trick, with one other spot-kick from Serhou Guirassy serving to the house aspect to a 5-1 half-time lead.
Guirassy struck once more after the break and Felix Nmecha accomplished the rout with the seventh objective.
Regardless of this, Celtic did progress to the knockouts and had been unfortunate to lose towards Bayern Munich.
6. Celtic 0-1 Maribor (2014)
Exiting the Champions League to the Slovenian champions was dangerous sufficient, however the backstory makes this loss much more embarrassing.
Put merely, Celtic had been lucky to have gotten that far after dropping within the earlier spherical to Legia Warsaw.
The Poles beat Celtic in every leg, however inadvertently fielded a suspended participant following an administrative blunder and had been kicked out by UEFA.
Regardless of their luck, Ronny Delia’s aspect performed like drains towards Maribor at Parkhead regardless of being favourites to progress after a 1-1 attract Slovenia.
They barely examined visiting goalkeeper Jasmin Handanovic of their greatest recreation of the season and Maribor captain Marcos Tavares scored the winner with quarter-hour left.
5. Utrecht 4-0 Celtic (2010)
On this Europa League play-off, Celtic travelled to the Netherlands with a two-goal lead and momentum constructing domestically underneath Neil Lennon.
All that evaporated in 20 minutes as Ricky van Wolfswinkel – later of Norwich infamy – netted twice to stage the tie.
Van Wolfswinkel later accomplished his hat-trick and Barry Maguire added a fourth for Utrecht as Celtic exited Europe earlier than the profitable group levels.
“I’ve seen it too many occasions in Europe,” Lennon stated afterwards. “It’s a mentality factor, I feel, greater than the rest.”
4. Artmedia Bratislava 5-0 Celtic (2005)
Gordon Strachan endured a disastrous begin to his tenure as Celtic supervisor when his aspect slumped to a humiliating five-goal drubbing in Bratislava.
Juraj Halenar scored a hat-trick, whereas Blazej Vascak and Martin Mikulic claimed a objective apiece.
Celtic did restore some satisfaction within the return leg in Glasgow, however a courageous 4-0 win was not sufficient to forestall an early European exit. No Convention League security internet in 2005.
3. Lincoln Pink Imps 1-0 Celtic (2016)
When a match has its personal Wikipedia web page, you possibly can safely assume the humiliation was whole.
Brendan Rodgers was recent within the Parkhead hotseat when his new aspect conspired to lose towards the Gibraltarian champions.
What prevented this end result from nestling in our high spot was that Celtic received the return leg 3-0 and carried out manfully within the Champions League group levels.
They went unbeaten domestically too, though Rodgers by no means managed to translate such dominance into European competitors.
2. Kairat 0-0 Celtic (2025)
Celtic blew the possibility to succeed in the Champions League after an ignominious defeat in a penalty shootout away to Kairat Almaty as Brendan Rodgers’ aspect failed to attain a objective in 210 minutes.
Substitute Adam Idah missed the primary spot-kick, adopted by Luke McCowan and Daizen Maeda having their effort saved.
Kairat received the shoot-out 3-2, sending them into the Champions League correct for the primary time ever.
After a summer time of poor funding, tensions had been heightened between Rodgers and the Parkhead board. It might ultimately end result within the supervisor’s explosive resignation two months later.
1. LASK 5-1 Celtic (2026)
The place to start with this abject humiliation, one which noticed Celtic fumble a four-goal lead and exit the Champions League in essentially the most ignominous trend concievable?
After travelling to Austria with a three-goal lead, Callum McGregor’s first-half objective appeared to go away Celtic with one foot and 4 toes within the group levels.
Followers might’ve nearly been forgiven for mentally planning journeys to Paris, Munich, Madrid and the remaining.
However LASK performed aggressively constructive soccer and shortly whittled Celtic’s mixture lead away. An injury-time objective despatched the tie to extra-time and just one winner seemed seemingly thereafter.
They even had time to overlook a penalty to make it 6-1 as Martin O’Neill’s aspect supplied feebly little in response. Celtic dropped into the Europa League as a consequence.
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