LASK's Perfect Start Meets Celtic Challenge: Jungwirth's Warning
Lukas Jungwirth had barely finished celebrating another clean sheet before he turned to warning mode.
LASK’s goalkeeper walked off the Raiffeisen Arena pitch on Sunday with a 2-0 win over Austria Wien in his pocket, a perfect league start secured, and the Austrian champions already looking up at a much steeper climb: Celtic in the Champions League play-off.
Two wins from two to open their Admiral Bundesliga title defence say one thing. Jungwirth’s words said another. This is no time for self-congratulation.
Perfect start, imperfect performance
LASK did the job against Austria Wien. The champions were favourites, they played like it for long spells, and they got what they came for. Two goals, three points, another statement that last season’s title win was no one-off.
Yet the man in gloves saw the cracks that a more ruthless side might tear open.
“Around the time of the offside goal, we relied too much on possession and weren't mentally prepared for Austria's counter-attacks,” Jungwirth said, speaking via Daily Record after the match. “We also need to be more clinical at the end; we might be punished for that against other opponents.”
That “other opponents” line hung in the air. He didn’t need to say “Celtic.” Everyone in Linz knows who’s coming next.
For a spell on Sunday, LASK drifted. They kept the ball, passed and probed, but the edge dulled. Austria Wien thought they had forced a way back with the offside effort; LASK’s control had turned into comfort, and comfort into carelessness. Against domestic rivals, they escaped. Against a side with Celtic’s firepower, that kind of lapse can flip a tie.
Celtic test looming
The stakes rise sharply from here. First leg at Celtic Park, second leg back in Austria. A place in the Champions League group stage on the line, and with it the prestige and financial muscle that shape seasons and transfer windows.
Celtic will not arrive as a work in progress in the final third. Martin O'Neill’s squad has been aggressively armed for this very challenge. Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran are already through the door, fresh options in an attack that needed variety and depth. Haissem Hassan is poised to join that frontline, another piece designed to stretch defences and punish exactly the sort of slackness Jungwirth highlighted.
LASK, then, walk into this play-off with a dual identity. On one side, the confident champions who finished ahead of Sturm Graz to take the Austrian title, who have started the new campaign with back-to-back wins, who know how to manage pressure and close out games. On the other, a team whose own goalkeeper is publicly demanding sharper minds and colder finishing before they step onto the European stage.
Demands from the back
Jungwirth’s assessment cut through the usual early-season platitudes. No hiding behind the scoreline, no dressing up the performance as flawless just because the table looks good.
“I think if you go home with a 2-0 win as the favourites, you can definitely be satisfied,” he added.
Satisfied, yes. Content, no.
His message was clear: the margins are about to shrink. The moments when LASK “relied too much on possession” won’t simply pass without consequence when Hogh is pressing the back line, when Duran is running channels, when Celtic’s forwards are springing from a low block into full-speed transition.
The warning about being “more clinical at the end” carries just as much weight. Two goals were enough against Austria Wien. In Glasgow, one missed chance can define a leg. One heavy touch, one rushed finish, and the whole tie tilts.
Champions who know the standard
Inside the LASK camp, confidence still runs high. You do not overhaul Sturm Graz over the course of a season without resilience, structure and belief. This squad has gone the distance in a title race; it understands how quickly momentum can swing and how unforgiving big occasions become when concentration drops.
That is why Jungwirth’s words matter. They come from a position of strength, not panic. The champions are not stumbling into Europe; they are walking in with eyes open, aware that what beats Austria Wien in late July might not be enough at Celtic Park in a play-off cauldron.
The domestic form offers a platform. The goalkeeper has laid down the challenge. Now LASK must prove that the small lapses of Matchday 1 were just that – early-season rust – and not a hint of vulnerability that Celtic’s new-look attack will seize upon when the lights go up and the anthem plays.
