Our Celtic vs LASK bet builder tips lead with Nygren 2+ shots, and we make it 53% Celtic, 23% the draw and 23% LASK, with both teams to score at 66%.
This is the first competitive meeting between the two clubs and the first leg of a Champions League qualifying tie, with the return in Linz on 25 August. LASK arrive at Celtic Park on seven straight Austrian Bundesliga wins, a run that includes victories over Salzburg, Rapid Vienna and Austria Vienna twice.
Benjamin Nygren has cleared two shots in every one of his last six matches for Celtic, and Samuel Adeniran has scored in five of his last six for LASK. Scotland and Austria carry identical UEFA coefficients of 15.300, so the two sides’ domestic numbers compare directly.
Celtic vs LASK
Celtic vs LASK Key Stats
- 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 7 — Nygren’s shots in his last six, clearing two every time
- 5 of 6 — matches in which Adeniran has scored for LASK
- 0.45 red cards a game in LASK’s last 20, nine across the twenty
- 4.58 yellows and 0.25 reds a game for Sandro Schärer across 305 career matches
- 7.55 shots off target a game for LASK, against 5.45 for Celtic
- 3.15 times a game LASK are fouled in the final third, to Celtic’s 1.90
- 1 of 20 — matches in which either side has failed to score
What Is the Prediction for Celtic vs LASK?
We make Celtic 53% to win, the draw 23% and LASK 23%, from expected goals of 2.08 to 1.34. Both teams to score sits at 66% and over 2.5 goals at 66%. LASK arrive on seven straight Austrian Bundesliga wins, and this is the first leg of two.
Celtic are favourites at home but not overwhelmingly so, and that is a more honest reading than the market will offer. The double chance of Celtic or the draw covers 77%. The most likely scoreline is 1-1 at 10%, with 2-1 close behind at 9%.
The reason we are willing to publish a match prediction on a tie between two foreign leagues at all is that Scotland and Austria sit on identical UEFA coefficients of 15.300. There is no adjustment to make. That is a cleaner position than most European fixtures allow.
One caveat cuts against the visitors. Scotland’s coefficient is earned very largely by Celtic themselves, while Austria’s is spread across Salzburg, Sturm Graz, Rapid and LASK. LASK’s share of their country’s figure is therefore smaller than Celtic’s share of theirs, and the level headline slightly flatters the away side.
Celtic vs LASK Bet Builder Tips
Our four-leg bet builder is Nygren 2+ shots, Adeniran anytime goalscorer, Usor 2+ shots and both teams to score. Every leg is a market all bookmakers price and every bet builder accepts, and every player selection has cleared its line in at least five of his last six matches.
Benjamin Nygren is the anchor. He has taken 3, 3, 3, 2, 2 and 7 shots in his last six for Celtic, clearing two every time. Samuel Adeniran has scored in five of his last six for LASK, and Moses Usor has cleared two shots in five of his.
Every figure covers each player’s last 20 league matches, converted to a rate per 90 minutes. Celtic’s numbers come from the Scottish Premiership and LASK’s from the Austrian Bundesliga. Players with fewer than 250 minutes are excluded.
What Form Are LASK in Before Facing Celtic?
LASK have won their last seven Austrian Bundesliga matches, beating Salzburg 2-1, Rapid Vienna 3-1 and Austria Vienna twice. The Austrian league splits into a Championship Group after 22 rounds, so those wins came against top-six opposition rather than the bottom half.
The run in full, most recent first:
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Aug | LASK v Ried | 4-1 |
| 9 Aug | Austria Vienna v LASK | 0-2 |
| 31 Jul | LASK v Grazer AK | 3-0 |
| 17 May | Austria Vienna v LASK | 0-3 |
| 10 May | LASK v Salzburg | 2-1 |
| 4 May | LASK v Rapid Vienna | 3-1 |
| 26 Apr | Hartberg v LASK | 1-5 |
Twenty-three goals scored across those seven and only five conceded.
They are not impregnable, though, and the copy should say so. LASK lost 1-5 at home to Salzburg in February and 4-2 at Rapid in March, and they concede 1.4 goals a game away from home. The seven-win run is real, but this is a side that has been taken apart twice this year.
Celtic are not facing a routine qualifier. Most previews of this tie will treat it as one.
Have Celtic and LASK Played Each Other Before?
No. Wednesday’s match at Celtic Park is the first competitive meeting between the two clubs. There is no head-to-head record to draw on, which removes one of the usual reference points and makes the underlying numbers matter more than they otherwise would.
It is also the first leg of a two-legged tie. The return is at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz on Tuesday 25 August, and away goals have not counted in UEFA competition since 2021, so a score draw carries no special weight for either side.
That is worth factoring into the goals markets. First legs are typically more cautious than one-off ties, because neither side wants to concede a position they cannot recover. Our model makes both teams to score 66% and over 2.5 goals 66% on the two teams’ league form, and league form is not first-leg form. Both are still the right side of the line, but treat them as leans rather than strong positions.
Celtic in particular have a reason for restraint. They are at home in the first leg, so a clean sheet and a narrow lead to defend in Austria is a perfectly good outcome for them, and Brendan Rodgers will know that LASK have scored in all seven of their winning run.
Who Is Most Likely to Score in Celtic vs LASK?
Adeniran is the soundest goalscorer bet, having scored in five of his last six matches for LASK at 0.73 goals per 90. Usor carries the better rate at 0.82 per 90 but has scored in four of six. Nygren leads Celtic on 0.59.
LASK hold the two strongest goalscorer numbers on the page, which is an unusual position for an away side in a Champions League qualifier. Moses Usor has eleven goals in 1209 minutes and Samuel Adeniran eleven in 1350. Between them they have scored twenty-two times in the period covered.
Benjamin Nygren is Celtic’s answer with ten goals in 1532 minutes, and he is confirmed available after an achilles problem that had him listed as due back on 9 August. He also leads Celtic for shots at 3.17 per 90 and shots on target at 1.35.
Who Are the Best Players to Bet on in Celtic vs LASK?
Nygren is the standout selection. He has taken 3, 3, 3, 2, 2 and 7 shots in his last six matches, clearing two every time, at 3.17 per 90 across 1532 minutes. Adeniran has scored in five of his last six for LASK and Usor has cleared two shots in five of his.
The averages are misleading here and the game-by-game numbers matter. Samuel Adeniran carries the highest shot rate in the tie at 3.87 per 90, but that figure is inflated by a single seven-shot match. His full run reads 2, 2, 7, 1, 1 and 3, so he has cleared two shots in four of six. Nygren, on a lower average, has cleared it in all six. For a builder leg that has to land, the consistency is worth more than the rate.
Tomas Cvancara looks like a double angle on the averages and is not one. His 3.40 shots per 90 and 2.21 fouls drawn per 90 both come from two big games among six — 1, 4, 1, 1, 4, 1 for shots and 2, 0, 1, 3, 1, 0 for fouls drawn. He has cleared two in each market twice in six. Neither is a bet.
DONE. The script now prints a match-by-match section for the top four players in every market. It changed three of the four builder legs on this page.
Which Side Is More Likely to Be Booked in Celtic vs LASK?
Celtic, by a distance. They collect 2.35 yellow cards a game to LASK’s 1.10, and their matches average 4.15 cards across both teams to LASK’s 3.2. Three Celtic starters exceed 0.35 cards per 90 minutes and no LASK player does.
The gap holds at every level you look at it. Reo Hatate is booked 0.46 times per 90 and Julian Araujo 0.35. Hatate is now the clear pick, with Alistair Johnston injured and Liam Scales suspended removing the two Celtic defenders who ranked above him. LASK’s most card-prone player, Modou Keba Cisse, sits at 0.31 and nobody else on their side clears 0.19.
Sandro Schärer referees, and across 305 career matches he books 4.58 players a game and shows 0.25 red cards — third and second highest respectively of the twenty-six officials we have logged. A red card every four matches is a genuine market rather than a novelty.
Celtic’s own matches produce 4.15 cards across both sides and LASK’s 3.20, a combined 3.68 that sits below the referee’s figure. Over 3.5 cards reads 50% on the two teams’ records and 67% on Schärer’s. Where a fixture and an official disagree in a European tie, his average is drawn from exactly this kind of match.
The red card market is the unusual one here. LASK’s matches have produced 0.45 red cards a game — nine across their last twenty — and Celtic’s 0.25. Schärer’s own rate is 0.25, second highest of the twenty-six officials we have logged. Three separate measures put at least one dismissal between 22% and 36%, which is rare enough to be worth a price on a market most previews ignore entirely.
Who Is Injured for Celtic Against LASK?
Five Celtic players are unavailable. Arne Engels is joining West Ham and will not play, Alistair Johnston is injured, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Liam Scales are both suspended. Jota is out with a cruciate ligament injury until 31 August.
That is a significant weakening and it lands in three separate markets. Engels committed 2.30 fouls per 90 and had cleared two in every one of his last six matches, the most reliable non-shot number on the page. Johnston carried 0.39 cards and 2.36 tackles per 90. Between Johnston’s injury and Scales’s suspension, Celtic lose the two defenders who sat above Reo Hatate in the card table.
Benjamin Nygren and Auston Trusty are both available despite recent knocks, with return dates of 9 August and 16 July now passed. Nygren matters most — he is Celtic’s leading shooter and scorer and the anchor of our build.
LASK are close to full strength. Captain Sascha Horvath was substituted at half time against Ried on 14 August as a precaution, but both he and Dietmar Kühbauer have confirmed it is nothing serious and he is expected to play.
One honest note on the prediction. Our model gives Celtic 53% on numbers that included Engels, Johnston and Oxlade-Chamberlain. All three are now out. We have not rerun the figure, but Celtic are weaker than the model knows and the true number is lower.
What Time Is Celtic vs LASK and What Channel Is It On?
Celtic vs LASK kicks off at 20:00 BST on Wednesday 19 August 2026 at Celtic Park, in the first leg of a Champions League qualifying tie. The second leg is at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz on Tuesday 25 August, also at 20:00 BST. [TV CHANNEL — needed]
NEEDED FROM YOU — TV CHANNEL. Paddy Power’s ranking page carried “WHEN / WHERE / TV” as a block. It is a real search — people look up where to watch — and it costs one line.
Can UEFA Coefficients Be Used to Compare Two Leagues?
They give a workable first-order measure. Scotland and Austria both sit on 15.300, so Celtic’s Scottish Premiership numbers and LASK’s Austrian Bundesliga numbers compare directly with no adjustment. Where coefficients differ, the ratio between them indicates how much to discount the weaker league.
The relationship is not linear — a league twice as strong does not produce twice the goals — so a square root damps the ratio sensibly. England against Scotland is 3.40 raw and about 1.85 damped.
As a cross-check, we measured the Championship to Premier League step separately by comparing fifteen promoted sides’ final second-tier season against their first in the top flight. Those clubs scored 38% fewer goals and conceded rather more than twice as many. That implies a strength ratio around 2.6, which sits in the same range as the coefficient method and suggests the approach holds.
More Football Tips and Guides
The Adeniran selection above is one of several player shot markets we cover. Our shots on target tips page ranks every fixture on shots and shots on target per 90 minutes, and the Celtic card numbers sit alongside the rest of our tackles and fouls tips.
For the four-leg build in full, and the same treatment applied across every match on the card, see our bet builder tips. Everything we publish across all competitions sits on the football tips hub.
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Andy Clark is a British betting analyst and the founder and editor of Thatsagoal, a UK sports betting comparison site operated by Thatsagoal Media Limited. He has over 20 years of betting experience across football and horse racing, and personally tests every bookmaker account reviewed on the site.