Stuttgart suffered a 4-1 defeat at home in the first leg of the play-offs, almost ending Celtic’s hopes of advancing to the Europa League.
Martin O’Neill’s side now have a huge task to reverse this draw and advance to the last 16 against Germany next week. But his Europa League hopes were dashed on the pitch, with fractures around the club clearly exposed on Thursday.
The match was abandoned seconds after the first whistle as Celtic fans threw tennis balls onto the pitch in protest of the club’s board. In the second half, their own goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was booed. In the end, only a few people remained to vent their grievances.
Thiago Thomas’ fourth goal in stoppage time looked like the contest was all but over, but Celtic were second best overall.
Bilal El Cannous scores Stuttgart’s first goal against Celtic
Schmeichel should have done better in El Canus’ first attack. A poor pass from the back caused Celtic to make a serious mistake. He was then unable to prevent a similar low drive from the edge of the box by Jamie Leveling for Stuttgart’s third goal.
However, the defense in front of Schmeichel also endured a hot night, giving El Canus too much space to head Stuttgart’s second goal, while Elmedin Demirovic was denied a fourth goal due to an offside decision by VAR. Thomas missed a close-range header in the last minute, but he eventually got it.
Stuttgart, who are fourth in the Bundesliga, finished 10th above Celtic in the league and looked to be in a different league all night apart from the brief sending-off of captain Atakan Karazor, which saw Benjamin Nygren briefly move up the table.
Players pick up toy balls thrown by spectators during a protest during the UEFA Europa League final round play-offs.
Celtic had scored the winning goal in stoppage time in each of their previous three games, but their performance was summed up by the sight of Julian Araujo, who scored the winning goal in the 97th minute against Kilmarnock on Sunday, slipping a great chance wide in the final seconds.
It was O’Neill’s first defeat since returning to Celtic for his 1,000th game as manager. It was a brutal wake-up call about what Celtic are in right now.
O’Neill: We were masters of our own destruction.
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill told TNT Sports:
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Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has slammed the fan protests that led to the game against Stuttgart being called off.
“It’s a tough night for us. Obviously 4-1 looks like a pretty bad result. We were masters of our defeat in many aspects. We conceded some very bad goals.
“At 1-1, even at halftime when we were down 2-1, we felt like we were really in the game. It was a tough night.”
On the other hand, he said, “That’s a difficult question. We’re heading over there in fourth place in the Bundesliga and have a very good chance of winning this competition, so we’re a good team.”
“At some stage Celtic will be a top-level team in Europe. That’s in the future, at some stage. But at the moment our battle is elsewhere. Our focus now is absolutely on Sunday.”
McGregor defends Schmeichel after boos from Celtic fans
Celtic captain Callum McGregor told TNT Sport:
“Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has nights off. Kasper has been great since he came to the club. He’s been a really big part of the success and a big player in the dressing room for us.”
“He’s going to shake it off and fight again. Everyone’s giving it their all. We win as a team and we lose as a team.
“There’s no fault in him and the players are watching him. He’s made a lot of big saves for us and I’m sure he’ll bounce back.”
