Celtic are dumped out of Champions League in Greece
Celtic’s Champions League hopes were ended after a 2-1 qualifying defeat by AEK Athens in Greece saw them lose 3-2 on aggregate.
Brendan Rodgers, who had taken the Hoops to the group stages of the competition in his first two years in charge, had admitted the third qualifying round tie in the Olympic Stadium was his biggest qualifying challenge to date following the 1-1 draw in the first leg at Parkhead last week.
Within six minutes his side were trailing to a Rodrigo Galo strike and it looked a forlorn task for the visitors when Croatian striker Marko Livaja headed in a second five minutes after the break.
Parkhead substitute Scott Sinclair pulled a goal back in the 78th minute but despite a grand finale the Scottish champions could not fashion a second which would have put them through on away goals.
Dropping down to the Europa League, where they will play Latvian side Spartaks Jurmala or Lithuanian side Suduva, is a huge blow for Celtic who will miss out on the prestige - not to mention the vast sums of money - to be earned in the Champions League.
The 70,000-capacity stadium was only around halffull but the home fans roared when Niklas Hult, at the second attempt, got his cross pass fellow Swedish defender Mikael Lustig to Brazilian midfielder Galo, who swept it past keeper Craig Gordon from 12 yards.
Celtic fought hard but Galo’s free-kick to the back post was headed back across goal by Vassilis Lampropoulos for Livaja to head past Gordon.
Again Celtic responded positively but Sinclair’s goal was just not enough.