Celtic head coach Martin O'Neill has taken responsibility for his team's elimination from the UEFA Champions League.
As reported by İdman.Biz, Celtic suffered a 5-1 defeat in the second leg of the Champions League play-off despite taking the lead in the match. The Scottish club lost the tie 5-4 on aggregate and will now continue their European campaign in the UEFA Europa League.
"I take responsibility for this defeat, without a doubt. Naturally, it took me a long time to get over losing the UEFA Cup final in 2003, and that was extremely disappointing. That was a final which would have been great to win. But this was a qualifying tie that we should have come through.
"Reaching the Champions League is important in every respect - financially and in terms of prestige - but now we have to gather our thoughts. Again, that is my responsibility. I said last week that if we qualified for the Champions League, players would want to join Celtic because of that. Now that won't happen.
"We clearly ran out of energy today, particularly in the second half," O'Neill was quoted as saying by BBC.
Celtic had entered the return leg with a 3-0 advantage following their victory in the first match, but the Austrian side produced a remarkable comeback to overturn the deficit and advance to the Champions League league phase.
Celtic's squad includes former Qarabağ striker Camilo Duran. The Colombian forward scored twice in the first leg against the Austrian side, playing a major role in the Scottish club's 3-0 victory.
