Viljami Sinisalo admits Celtic were left “shell shocked” after being destroyed by LASK in Tuesday’s Champions League playoff.

The Austrian champions stunned the Hoops by slamming home five goals without reply after Callum McGregor had opened the scoring to secure what was a 4-0 aggregate lead at the time. The hosts won 5-4 after extra-time and goalkeeper Sinisalo could hardly get his words out.

The stopper had made a handful of vital saves across both legs including a late penalty stop in Linz but could not prevent the humiliation that came from the elimination.

The Finland international, 24, sat on the bench last season as a similar scenario played out when Celts were knocked out at the same stage by minnows Kairat Almaty on spot-kicks. But the custodian reckons this result hurts more and stunned the squad.

“Obviously I wasn’t personally part of that,” he said of the Kairat clash. “I was on the bench for those games and you feel it when it happens. We’re shell-shocked. It’s probably up there with the most disappointing things I’ve had to experience. Hopefully there won’t be any more of them.”

Mika Baur revealed the dressing room had gone silent and Sinisalo reiterated there was an eery quiet inside the stadium in Linz after the final whistle had blown.

“Obviously it’s raw; I’m kind of speechless in a way,” Sinisalo added. “It’s very hard for me to come here and explain that. I’ll try though because I don’t think the people coming here to support us deserved that. It’s unacceptable.

“I walked into a changing room that was silent. It’s a tough moment for everyone, individually and collectively. Probably the toughest moments of our careers and the only way of getting over that is sticking together and going again on Saturday.

“It’s a cliche, people don’t necessarily want to hear that. I would hate to be hearing that if I was a fan, but ultimately that’s the reality. What we’ve done there, we can’t do anything about it anymore. It was in the 120 minutes that we should have done more, and it’s tough to put it into words.”

Celtic were soundly beaten despite the scoreline still suggesting it was narrow, with the Hoops toiling across the pitch. Once Benjamin Nygren’s mistake allowed Moses Usor in to score on the half hour mark, the squad seemed to collapse and accept the inevitable.

Sinisalo put on a decent display considering he faced so many attempts on his goal and kept out a penalty from hat-trick chaser Samuel Adeniran to keep the score down.