Fans tear into desperately disappointing 3/10 Celtic man after collapse vs vfb stuttgart Europa humiliation

Celtic facing Europa League exit after crushing home loss to Stuttgart
The Hoops were well beaten by their Bundesliga opponents.

Kasper Schmeichel’s every touch was booed by a section of Celtic fans in the aftermath of conceding two soft goals in a 4-1 Europa League defeat bt Stuttgart.

The 39-year-old was slow to get down to the first of Bilal El Khannouss’ two goals and made a poor attempt to claw away a low drive from Jamie Leweling.

The Dane has come under criticism for his performances since returning from a shoulder injury last season and scoring an own goal in Celtic’s Scottish Cup final defeat by Aberdeen.

Benjamin Nygren briefly had Celtic level in the first half but the Bundesliga side were comfortable winners in the first leg of the knockout round play-offs and Tiago Tomas rounded off a poor night for Celtic with a stoppage-time effort.

Celtic beat Stuttgart on their way to the 2003 UEFA Cup final under current boss Martin O’Neill but the 73-year-old’s focus will surely now be on the domestic campaign, even ahead of next week’s second leg in Germany.

That game comes at the start of a four-match run of away games in 10 days, which also sees Celtic travel to Ibrox twice either side of a trip to Aberdeen.

A bouncy ball protest from angry Celtic fans halted the Europa League tie against Stuttgart by two minutes.

There was barely a minute on the clock when a large number of balls were thrown onto the pitch from the North Stand. Celtic went on to lose the match 4-1.

Probably alerted by his assistant, referee Erik Lambrechts brought the match to a halt as stewards came onto the pitch to clear away the bouncy balls.

After a two minute delay the match restarted with a drop ball awarded to Stuttgart.

CELTIC DISHARMONY
TNT Sports quickly cut away from the protests, as they focussed on the Celtic dug out it was obvious that Martin O’Neill wasn’t amused by the delay.

Celtic fans have staged a number of protests this season to highlight their issues with the way that the club has been run.

Interim Chairman Brian Wilson has made a couple of of appeals for unity, on February 5he discussed having meeting with support groups.

It seems that those talks haven’t achieved anything tangible.

Ultras group the Green Brigade have been suspended since the start of November with a tarpaulin covering their area of the ground.

Martin O’Neill spoke on Wednesday about progress being made with supporters but those hopes seem misplaced.

On the pitch Celtic went behind in the15th minute when Kasper Schmeichel was slow getting down to a shot from Bilal El Khannouss.

Ben Nygren equalised six minutes later but in the 28th minute El Khannouss headed Stuttgart back in front.

Any hopes of a Celtic comeback were ended in the 57th minute when Stuttgart went 3-1 in front.

A low shot from Jamie Leweling flew past Schmeichel but the keeper was slow to go down with the ball hitting the net a yard inside the right hand post.

In stoppage time Stuttgart got the fourth goal that their play deserved when Tiago Tomás cut through the hoops defence to shoot past Schmeichel.

Nothing went Celtic’s way on the night with the return leg looking like a damage limitation exercise.