Martin O’Neill makes Celtic reality clear despite putting one foot in Champions League

The Hoops produced an impressive European display at Celtic Park to establish a commanding advantage ahead of next week’s return leg in Austria.

LASK actually thought they had made the perfect start when they found the net inside the opening minute, only for the goal to be ruled out.

Celtic eventually settled and Benjamin Nygren broke the deadlock with a brilliant strike from outside the box.

Camilo Duran then took centre stage, producing a stunning volley shortly before half-time before adding his second after the break to cap an excellent night for O’Neill’s side.

Chris Sutton was among those blown away by Duran’s finish, while Celtic will now travel to Austria knowing they are potentially just 90 minutes away from the Champions League proper.

Despite the three-goal cushion, O’Neill was keen to keep his players grounded and warned that LASK showed enough at Celtic Park to demonstrate the danger they still possess.

O’Neill told TNT Sports, “I thought it was a really tough evening for us. Yeah. Really tough evening. We won 3-0, and they’re a really good side.

“I said to the players beforehand, anyway, that they’ve got plenty of pace up front as well too, and they’re a very, very, very fine, talented team.

“And we still have our work cut out, but we’ve given ourselves a chance, let me put it that way.

“They scored a goal just in the first minute chalked off for offside or whatever it was, and they started so brightly it was untrue, and it took us a 10, 15 minutes to get in our stride.”