Basel - 2 Celtic - 0:CHAMPIONS LEAGUE/Qualifying: Cletic's Champions League dream lay in tatters last night after the Scottish champions conceded two early goals, a setback from which they could never recover.
The financial repercussions, aside from all others, will be huge for the Parkhead club, and could force the manager Martin O'Neill to reduce the size of his squad ahead of Saturday's European transfer deadline.
The similarity to the first leg was particularly painful for the Scots. Just as they had before, they allowed Christian Jimenez to score an early goal, but unlike in their 3-1 first-leg success they were not to celebrate victory on this occasion.
Indeed, conceding a goal so quickly was the last thing O'Neill's side had wanted, but there were ominous signs from the outset as a surprise selection featuring Mohammed Sylla and Ulrik Laursen instead of Didier Agathe and Steve Guppy struggled to get to grips with their opponents. It says much about the first-half performance that that pair both came on at half-time.
Paul Lambert had to produce two last-ditch tackles to deny Jimenez and Ivan Ergic and Robert Douglas did well to cut out a Carlos Varela cross before Jimenez moved on to a brilliant through ball from Hakan Yakin and stroked his shot wide of the goalkeeper from 15 yards.
An already noisy St Jacob Stadium erupted at the goal and there was plenty more to keep them in full voice as the sides maintained a relentless pace, Julio Rossi soon going close for the home side.
There was some respite for the visitors when Pascal Zuberbuhler blocked a point-blank header from Henrik Larsson and then collapsed on to the rebound as Sylla threatened, but that was only temporary and in the 22nd minute Basle went two up.
Joos Valgaren, Bobo Balde and Johan Mjallby are all giants at the back, yet none could cut out Mario Cantaluppi's corner, nor for that matter Murat Yakin's downward header that bounced high into the net.
The Scottish champions regrouped a little after that and Balde was frustrated with two good headers, one just over and one well saved.
Just before half-time there was also a nasty clash of heads between Mjallby and Hakan Yakin that left the Swede heavily bandaged and the Basle midfielder wearing a rather fetching woolly hat.
After such an eventful first half it was no surprise that the pace dropped a little, although the outcome might have been different had a shot from Stilian Petrov slipped inside the post just 60 seconds after the re-start rather than rolling wide.
The Scots certainly looked better balanced and both substitutes enjoyed a lot of possession in the wide areas. But their continuing failure to score prompted O'Neill to bring on John Hartson for Sylla with 20 minutes remaining. The change almost worked immediately as Zuberbuhler was forced into an excellent save to keep out the Welshman's header from a Petrov free kick, while, with Celtic committing men forward, Basle went close through Hakan Yakin after a quick break.
"I am obviously very disappointed, but we didn't play well enough in he first-half," conceded O'Neill afterwards.
BASEL (4-4-2): Zuberbuhler; Barberis, Quennoz, M Yakin, Duruz; Cantaluppi, H Yakin, Ergic, Varela (Degen, 62); Gimenez (Koumantarakis, 85), Rossi (Tum, 71).
CELTIC (3-5-2): Douglas; Mjallby, Balde, Valgaeren; Sylla (Hartson, 71), Lennon, Lambert (Agathe, h-t), Petrov, Laursen (Guppy, h-t); Sutton, Larsson.
Referee: Anders Frisk (Sweden).
