STUTT TO THE SWORD

Dominant Germans in control as Hoops leave themselves with mountain to climb in second leg

- BY GAVIN MCCAFFERTY

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 by 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 playoffs and Tiago Tomas (inset) 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.