Champions League draw: Celtic land LASK in quest to reach promised land

Martin O’Neill’s men will be at home first on either August 18/19, before heading to Linz for the return match on August 25/26.

LASK won the Austrian Bundesliga last season for only the second time in their history by two points from Sturm Graz. They are managed by Dietmar Kühbauer and play at the Raiffeisen Arena, which has a capacity of 19,080.

The Austrian side have faced Scottish opposition on three separate occasions. They lost 7-2 on aggregate to Dundee United in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup, drew 2-2 with Partick Thistle in the InterToto Cup in 1995 and most recently faced St Johnstone in the play-off round of the 2021/22 Conference League, prevailing 3-0 on aggregate.

LASK described their league triumph last season as a “fairytale” and Kuhbauer said after the deciding win: “If someone had told us this seven months ago, we would have thought they were crazy.”

They also won the Austrian Cup to make it four major trophies in their history. Both of the other triumphs also came in a double-winning campaign 61 years earlier.

They have only won one of their last 14 European games and finished 35th in the Conference League last season. Their summer signings included defender Miguel Freckleton, who moved from St Mirren after one season in Paisley.

The winner of the two-legged tie with advance into the Champions League, while the loser drops into the Europa League.

Celtic faltered at this stage of the Champions League last season when they were defeated on penalties by Kazakh side Kairat Almaty following two goalless draws.

UEFA will announce the full match schedule in the next 24 hours.

Full Champions League play-off draw: Levski Sofia/Kairat Almaty v AEK Athens, Celtic v LASK, Dinamo Zagreb/Zaligris v Viking, Mjallby/Slovan Bratislava v Ararat/Celje, Hapoel Be’er Sheva/Red Star Belgrade v Aarhus/Sabah, Fenerbahce/Sturm Graz v Sparta Prague/Lyon, Olympiacos/NEC v Union Saint-Gilloise/BodoGlimt.