Meanwhile, Steven Gerrard came off the substitutes bench to lift Liverpool from their slumber after the European champions struggled to impress against Lithuanian side FBK Kaunas at Anfield on Tuesday.

The Liverpool skipper struck his seventh goal in this season's competition within two minutes of replacing Dietmar Hamann to set Rafael Benitez's side on their way to a 2-0 victory on the night and a 5-1 aggregate cushion. Frenchman Djibril Cisse added the other goal.

Goals from Alan Thompson, John Hartson, Stephen McManus and Craig Beattie almost allowed the Glasgow giants to overturn their 5-0 defeat from the first-leg, in the second qualifying round of the Champions League.

Though new manager Gordon Strachan's side were just unable to make amends for their horror show the previous week the reaction at the end from their support showed their efforts were appreciated.

The Celtic manager was unhappy to be out of Europe but satisfied with his team's attitude.

Strachan said: "In terms of attitude, heart and determination the performance was very good but we have to play better and get fitter."

Artmedia Bratislava coach Vladimir Weiss was thrilled with his team's success but paid tribute to the Celtic fans who had tried to play their part in helping their side to a miraculous come-back right from the kick-off and roared their heroes on while whistling and booing every period of possession by the Slovakians.

"I have played football for many years but I've never seen such an atmosphere, the Celtic fans were incredible.

"I'm very proud of my players that in such an atmosphere they were able to win over two games and to go further in the competition."

Celtic took the lead in the 22nd minute after being awarded a penalty for a foul on Maciej Zurawski.

Thompson stepped up to slot the ball home low to goalkeeper Juraj Cobej's left and give Celtic a glimmer of hope.

Before the match Strachan had claimed his side needed to be two goals ahead at the break to have any realistic chance of over-turning the 5-0 deficit and in the 45th minute Hartson duly delivered.

Thompson played a long diagonal ball to Wallace who headed on into the path of the big Welsh striker and he steadied himself before unleashing a powerful right-foot shot low into the left-hand corner of the net.

Celtic started the second-half strongly but again they were struggling to make their dominance in possession count.

In the 54th minute Strachan decided to replace Wallace with Shaun Maloney and within 30 seconds the change paid off.

Thompson's corner seemed to have missed everybody but Maloney stole in at the back post to smash the ball back across goal and McManus ducked his head to nod the ball home via a deflection on the line.

Now the Celtic fans and players began to believe the impossible could be achieved.

And in the 81st minute Beattie, who had replaced Zurawski in the 63rd minute, brought Celtic agonisingly close to being the first ever side to reverse a 5-0 deficit in European competitions.

Mo Camara whipped a ball in from the left and the big striker met the cross with a powerful header from the penalty spot which flew into the left-hand corner of the net.

Despite their best efforts, however, Celtic could not get the vital fifth goal to keep their European hopes alive.