Ranking Celtic’s 7 worst European defeats since 2000 after LASK humiliation | OneFootball

Celtic have a proud European history, but glory on the continent has been matched by a string of humiliating defeats at the hands of smaller clubs.

The Scottish giants won the European Cup in 1967, reached the final again three years later and lost the UEFA Cup final to Jose Mourinho’s Porto in 2003.

But Celtic have also been humbled on several occasions and we’ve ranked their seven most abject European defeats of the 21st century.

7. Borussia Dortmund 7-1 Celtic (2024)

The chasm between the Have and Have Nots of European football means Celtic are never too far away from an old-fashioned pumping against one of the big boys.

We could’ve chosen a few results here, but shipping seven to a Dortmund team eliminated from the Europa League by Rangers a few years previously was pretty shaming.

Daizen Maeda cancelled out Emre Can’s early penalty in a frantic start, but it proved to be the briefest of respites for Celtic.

Adeyemi ran riot with a lethal hat-trick, with another spot-kick from Serhou Guirassy helping the home side to a 5-1 half-time lead.

Guirassy struck again after the break and Felix Nmecha completed the rout with the seventh goal.

Despite this, Celtic did progress to the knockouts and were unlucky to lose against Bayern Munich.

6. Celtic 0-1 Maribor (2014)

Exiting the Champions League to the Slovenian champions was bad enough, but the backstory makes this loss even more embarrassing.

Put simply, Celtic were fortunate to have got that far after losing in the previous round to Legia Warsaw.

The Poles beat Celtic in each leg, but inadvertently fielded a suspended player following an administrative blunder and were kicked out by UEFA.

Despite their good fortune, Ronny Delia’s side played like drains against Maribor at Parkhead despite being favourites to progress after a 1-1 draw in Slovenia.

They barely tested visiting goalkeeper Jasmin Handanovic in their biggest game of the season and Maribor captain Marcos Tavares scored the winner with 15 minutes left.

5. Utrecht 4-0 Celtic (2010)

In this Europa League play-off, Celtic travelled to the Netherlands with a two-goal lead and momentum building domestically under Neil Lennon.

All that evaporated in 20 minutes as Ricky van Wolfswinkel – later of Norwich infamy – netted twice to level the tie.

Van Wolfswinkel later completed his hat-trick and Barry Maguire added a fourth for Utrecht as Celtic exited Europe before the lucrative group stages.

“I have seen it too many times in Europe,” Lennon said afterwards. “It’s a mentality thing, I think, more than anything else.”

4. Artmedia Bratislava 5-0 Celtic (2005)

Gordon Strachan endured a disastrous start to his tenure as Celtic manager when his side slumped to a humiliating five-goal drubbing in Bratislava.

Juraj Halenar scored a hat-trick, while Blazej Vascak and Martin Mikulic claimed a goal apiece.

Celtic did restore some pride in the return leg in Glasgow, but a brave 4-0 win was not enough to prevent an early European exit. No Conference League safety net in 2005.

3. Lincoln Red Imps 1-0 Celtic (2016)

When a match has its own Wikipedia page, you can safely assume the humiliation was total.

Brendan Rodgers was fresh in the Parkhead hotseat when his new side conspired to lose against the Gibraltarian champions.

What prevented this result from nestling in our top spot was that Celtic won the return leg 3-0 and performed manfully in the Champions League group stages.

They went unbeaten domestically too, although Rodgers never managed to translate such dominance into European competition.

2. Kairat 0-0 Celtic (2025)

Celtic blew the chance to reach the Champions League after an ignominious defeat in a penalty shootout away to Kairat Almaty as Brendan Rodgers’ side failed to score a goal in 210 minutes.

Substitute Adam Idah missed the first spot-kick, followed by Luke McCowan and Daizen Maeda having their effort saved.

Kairat won the shoot-out 3-2, sending them into the Champions League proper for the first time ever.

After a summer of poor investment, tensions were heightened between Rodgers and the Parkhead board. It would eventually result in the manager’s explosive resignation two months later.

1. LASK 5-1 Celtic (2026)

Where to begin with this abject humiliation, one that saw Celtic fumble a four-goal lead and exit the Champions League in the most ignominous fashion concievable?

After travelling to Austria with a three-goal lead, Callum McGregor’s first-half goal seemed to leave Celtic with one foot and four toes in the group stages.

Fans could’ve almost been forgiven for mentally planning trips to Paris, Munich, Madrid and the rest.

But LASK played aggressively positive football and soon whittled Celtic’s aggregate lead away. An injury-time goal sent the tie to extra-time and only one winner looked likely thereafter.

They even had time to miss a penalty to make it 6-1 as Martin O’Neill’s side offered feebly little in response. Celtic dropped into the Europa League as a consequence.