Despite losing the Europa League 4-2 on aggregate to Stuttgart, Celtic regained their pride with Luke McCowan’s first-minute goal for their first win in Germany.
Three goals down from the first leg and needing a minor miracle to progress to the last 16, Martin O’Neill confirmed his decision to rest eight first-team players against the fourth-placed Bundesliga side ahead of Sunday’s tense Old Firm game, live on Sky Sports.
O’Neill’s players did not go along with his apparent desire to throw in the towel and, just 28 seconds into the game, Junior Adam’s slide-rule pass was fired in by McCowan, who stunned the MH Arena for his first European goal.
With the home team struggling to settle down, Celtic may have had a chance to score a second goal when Daenen Maeda dropped the ball at his feet from Adam’s cross.
However, once settled, there was little chance of a comeback and stand-in goalkeeper Villami Sinisalo, making his European debut for the Hoops, made a series of saves to keep the visitors in the lead on the night.
Once, when the Finnish stopper was brought down by Deniz Undav, VAR intervened and ruled Elmedin Demirovic offside in the build-up, preserving Celtic’s lead and avoiding a potentially controversial moment when the fourth official brought the injured Demirovic back onto the pitch just before receiving the ball.
After a heavy defeat in the first leg and an equally disappointing defeat at home to Hibs at the weekend, Celtic’s narrow win was a tonic for the jubilant away supporters who ended their European tour with a win and joined Bayern Munich as the only opposition teams to win in Stuttgart so far this season.
O’Neill gives ‘food for thought’ ahead of Old Firm game
O’Neill admitted he faced a selection dilemma ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Rangers, after his much-changed team achieved an academic but historic victory over Stuttgart, thanks to goalkeeper Sinisalo.
Sinisalo made six saves in his sixth Celtic appearance of the season, some of which were impressive stops.
The 24-year-old Finland international looked confident throughout and put pressure on Kasper Schmeichel for a place at Ibrox after the Danish player’s inconsistent performances in recent months.
O’Neill said: “I thought he did really well, really well in the game. I’m happy for him, he’s a nice player.”
“Everyone did a good job in the match, it gives me food for thought, of course it absolutely does.
“It’s not like we played with 16-year-olds. They all played, but some of them have played less football than others these days.
“I thought everyone did a great job.”
O’Neill admitted that he believed he could pull off the famous comeback thanks to McCowan’s early strikes.
McCowan was all smiles after scoring.
“I’m delighted with the effort and determination they put into the game,” added the Celtic manager.
“We had a really good start. We felt like if we didn’t concede in the first 20 minutes of the game and maybe even scored, we could still be level.
“I was so caught up in myself (after the goal). I thought this is what would happen here. In the end we should have created more chances, but they didn’t.”
“It might have been interesting if Seb (Tunekuti) had scored in the last few minutes. It might have been a bit nerve-wracking for Stuttgart.”
“I really thought I could do it, but it might ask a lot.
“We are playing a very good team, a team that can compete, from my perspective here.
“But I couldn’t be more happy with the team, I couldn’t be more pleased with the attitude and the motivation.”
