Published 23 August 2026. Updated 25 August 2026. Analysis and predictions are our opinion,
not a guarantee of anything. 18+, please gamble responsibly.
Celtic go to Austria on Tuesday 25 August needing only to avoid a collapse. They beat LASK 3-0 at Celtic Park last week, Benjamin Nygren opening the scoring before Camilo Duran added two, and the second leg at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz kicks off at 8pm UK time. TNT Sports has it live. Win or draw the tie on aggregate and Celtic are back in the Champions League league phase; lose by four clear goals and LASK complete one of the competition’s great turnarounds.
LASK are not pretending the tie is over. Striker Samuel Adeniran said after the first leg that “they still have to come to our place, and it’s not over yet,” and Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has been careful not to sound complacent either, calling it “not over yet by a long shot” in his own preview notes. Both managers have reasons to talk that way beyond politeness. LASK created chances in Glasgow that the 3-0 scoreline does not fully reflect, and a raucous home leg in Linz is a different occasion to an away night at Celtic Park.
What Celtic are missing
Celtic’s team news is not straightforward for a side three goals up. Alistair Johnston is out again with the hamstring injury that kept him from the first leg, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is suspended for both legs of the tie. New signing Arne Engels sat out the first leg entirely; O’Neill said Engels did not want to risk the injury that could derail his reported £22m move to West Ham, which leaves Celtic without his passing range in midfield for a second game running. Cameron Carter-Vickers is back from a nine-month Achilles layoff but has said himself he is not yet at full fitness. None of that changes the arithmetic of a three-goal cushion, but it explains why the market has not simply priced this as a formality.
The prices
LASK are the value price at home, out to around 5/6 with the shortest UK book and closer to 9/10 with Virgin Bet, LiveScore Bet and Grosvenor. Celtic winning the night outright sits between roughly 21/10 and 23/10, and the draw is priced between 11/4 and 3/1. Seven UK bookmakers are in the table above, and none of them are wildly out of line with each other, which is normal for a tie the market already considers largely decided on aggregate.
Virgin Bet is the only one of our partner books pricing this fixture. William Hill and Betfred simply are not in the odds panel that the-odds-api returns for Champions League qualifying rounds, which has been the pattern all through this year’s play-off round rather than something specific to this tie. That is not a reason to skip either offer below, just a reason their prices are not sitting in the table.
The offers, and which one actually fits this bet
Ad: Virgin Bet carries the live price on this match, and it is also the easiest of the three offers to use here. New customers who bet £10 and get £20 in free bets plus 2 x £5 Bet Builder tokens only need a qualifying bet at odds of 1/2 (1.5) or better, and every price on this fixture clears that by some distance, LASK included at 9/10. Deposit £10 by debit card, place your £10 qualifier on any market except virtual sports, and once it settles you accept the free bets from the pop-up within 7 days and use them within 7 days after that.
William Hill sets the same 1/2 minimum. Ad: new customers using promo code R30 can bet £10 and get £30 in free bets, paid as 3 x £10 once the qualifying bet settles. Like Virgin Bet, a straight bet on LASK, the draw or Celtic all qualify here, so the choice between the two offers comes down to the size of the free bets rather than which side of this match you fancy.
Betfred is the one to read the small print on before backing LASK. Ad: the bet £10, get £50 in free bets offer needs a qualifying bet at Evens (2.0) or better, and LASK’s best price in our table is 1.97. A bet on the draw or on Celtic clears the 2.0 line easily; a straight LASK win does not, at least not at any of the seven prices listed here. Betfred pays out as £30 in sports free bets and £20 in Bet Builder free bets, both within 24 hours of the qualifying bet settling and both gone after 7 days.
All three require a first deposit by debit card, all exclude e-wallets from qualifying, and all three sets of free bets carry the same 7-day shelf life once credited. The full significant terms sit on each offer card below this article.
What looks the smart angle
A three-goal aggregate lead with the away goal rule long since scrapped from UEFA competitions means Celtic effectively need two more goals than LASK across ninety minutes to be knocked out, which is a lot to ask of a side that managed nothing at Celtic Park. The prices reflect that: Celtic winning outright and Celtic losing the night but going through are two different bets, and the market on this page is only pricing the first one. LASK’s home price of 9/10 to 5/6 looks fair for a side with genuine pride and a raucous crowd behind them, not as a tip that they complete the turnaround. This is analysis, not a prediction, and two-legged ties have made fools of bigger leads than this one.
Elsewhere this week
Three more play-off second legs go on Tuesday and Wednesday: AEK Athens host Levski Sofia, Viking FK play Dinamo Zagreb, and Lyon travel to face Fenerbahce, all deciding the last places in this season’s league phase. Domestically, the Premier League goes quiet until Crystal Palace host Manchester City on Friday 28 August.
If you are opening an account before kick-off in Linz, Virgin Bet’s £30 in free bets is the offer that lines up most cleanly with the prices on this page, with William Hill’s £30 with code R30 as the other option that covers a LASK bet too. New customers only, 18+, one per person, full terms apply.
Sources: UEFA, The Scotsman, odds snapshot from the-odds-api.com taken 23 August 2026.
