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FOOTBALL

Strachan is target after Euro flop

story.celtic.jpg
Celtic players in happier times during last season's Champions League

GLASGOW, Scotland -- Seething Celtic fans are calling for new manager Gordon Strachan to be sacked after just one humiliating match in charge of the Scottish club.

Celtic crashed 5-0 in their Champions League qualifier first leg at Slovakia's Artmedia Petrzalka on Wednesday, their biggest loss since a 6-0 thrashing by Kilmarnock in 1963.

Fans called for Strachan's head in Bratislava and the former Coventry and Southampton manager admitted it had been his worst experience in football.

"This is not an easy one," Strachan said. "I have been a manager for eight years and I was a player for 25 years, but this is the worst football night I have ever had.

"I thought I had been tested as a player and a manager before, but it's a big test.

"I have had 33 years in football but at this moment I am in shock.

"It is very hard for me to be coherent and to speak about the future after this result."

Celtic also lost Chris Sutton with a fractured cheekbone in a first-half collision with captain Neil Lennon.

"We are grieving about this result but we should also be thinking about Chris," Strachan told reporters. "I hope he'll be back soon."

Strachan, who succeeded Martin O'Neill as Celtic manager in May, said he had not even thought about next week's second leg.

"What I have to do is suffer for the next 24 hours," he said. "I have been asked, 'How do you pick yourself up from something like this?' but you don't, you have to suffer and accept people will question our squad and question myself.

"But we have to handle it and come back from it. It will not be easy, but it's possible.

"We have to concentrate on the League and try to get back to being champions.

"The defense is a major concern, we have been trying to work hard on defending but everyone can see there is a lot of work to be done."

Celtic were the first British club to win the European Cup in 1967, beating Italian giants Inter Milan 2-1 in the final, and they reached the 2003 UEFA Cup final where they lost 3-2 after extra time to Porto.

Celtic's previous worst European defeat came in the 1991-92 UEFA Cup when they lost 5-1 to Neuchatel Xamax in Switzerland.

The second legs take place on August 2 and 3, after the draw for the third qualifying round, which will be made on Friday.

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