MAUL OF DUTY

With title race about to reach fever pitch, Araujo insists Hoops have no other option than to pick themselves up from Europa drubbing and take their anger out on Hibs

- BY RYAN MCDONALD

A EUROPEAN skelping would send most teams careening off the rails.

But Julian Araujo insists Celtic's mauling at the hands of Stuttgart WON'T derail their campaign. Instead, he believes the 4-1 drubbing can fire fresh steam into Martin O'Neill's title charge and keep their domestic bid firmly on track.

The Hoops crashed to a humiliating defeat on Thursday night as the Germans ran amok.

Two clangers from Kasper Schmeichel effectively killed off any lingering hope of ending Celtic's woeful 22-year wait for a knockout victory.

Araujo was ashamed to ship four goals to the Bundesliga high-flyers - especially on home turf. It leaves Celtic with an Everest-sized task heading over to Germany next week.

But Araujo is adamant the shattered Hoops have the steel to bounce back and will look to gather fresh momentum against Hibs tomorrow.

He said: "I think obviously it’s not the result we wanted. We've got to do better. We didn't have any options in the first half.

"In the second half, we were a little bit better. We know the four shots that they took they scored. We need to create more chances and score goals.

"If anything it motivates us. You can't have a team come to Celtic Park, and let them score four goals. So I think this motivates us and we're focused on the game in the league.