"It's a tough evening for us. On paper, 4-1 looks pretty poor. We were masters of our own downfall in many respects, conceded some poor goals. At some point, Celtic will become a top quality European team. That's in the future. At this moment our battles are elsewhere. Our focus now is totally on Sunday. It's very difficult for Scottish teams. There's no money. You're talking about Premier League sides and Bundesliga sides buying players for £40m and them not playing."
"Anyone who thinks that is a good idea, needs their head examined. A way back, this was an incredibly difficult, intimidating place to come. Teams like Juventus were terrified coming here. That sort of thing does not help at all."
Celtic lost 4-1 to Stuttgart in the first leg of the Europa League play-off, leaving a steep challenge to reach the last 16. It was the club's second defeat in the 2025-26 campaign under the interim manager and the first home loss since April 2005. The team has lost four of its last six home games in major European competition, matching the number of defeats from the previous 13 matches combined. Celtic created higher expected goals than Stuttgart (2.09 xG to 1.88) but conceded avoidable goals and were beaten convincingly. Play was halted 12 seconds after kick-off when fans threw tennis balls onto the pitch in protest at the board. Financial disparity with Premier League and Bundesliga clubs, who can buy players for around £40m, compounds the challenge.
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