Twelve minutes into the second half, the roles were reversed as Artmedia Bratislava scored a second. This time it was Telfer caught out by Halenar’s run, the tall Slovakian striker then repaying the earlier favour by laying it on a plate for Vascak to pounce at the far post with Camara stranded and helpless, the Guinean full-back on the wrong side of play.
Gordon Strachan’s immediate response was to ring the changes, Shaun Maloney and Jeremie Aliadiere replacing Maciej Zurawski and Alan Thompson. Celtic’s best spell of the match then followed, Maloney going desperately close before setting up McGeady perfectly for 2-1, the precociously talented youngster somehow contriving to hit the Artmedia crossbar from a few yards out. An away goal at that point would have changed the course of the tie and modern Celtic history, however, things were about to get much, much worse.
With 15 minutes left to play, there was a genuine moment of magic, as Halendar drifted out of the box to meet a corner kick on the volley, his vicious shot rasping past David Marshall into the corner of the net for 3-0.
Still Celts refused to shut up shop, continuing to chase a vital away score but the next goal came at the other end, just three minutes later, this time Martin Mikulic turning away from Stan Varga and the wayward Camara to fire the ball home.
Celtic’s misery was complete in the dying seconds, as yet another simple through ball beat the entire Hoops defence, Halendar racing past Bobo Balde before shooting through Marshall to complete his hat-trick, sealing an abject European night and a 5-0 trouncing.
This was only Juraj Halendar’s second match for Artmedia, having signed from Inter Bratislava a few days earlier and after scoring twice for Inter on the opening day of the season against MFK Ruzomberok. MFK would succeed Artmedia as Slovakian champions the following May.
