ByGeorge O'NeillBBC Sport Scotland<\/p>\n
At half-time in Celtic's eventual 4-1 Europa League play-off defeat by Stuttgart, the focus was on home goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.<\/p>\n
"It looks to me as if he is not expecting shots, which is strange for a goalkeeper," former Scotland forward James McFadden said. "He's expecting defenders to stop every shot.<\/p>\n
"Teams will be saying there appears to be a weakness to his left-hand side."<\/p>\n
The Denmark shot-stopper had been beaten down to his left by a tame Bilal El Khannouss shot for Stuttgart's opening goal, before the on-loan Leicester City man added a second with a free header from seven yards out.<\/p>\n
And at full-time, attention was on Schmeichel again.<\/p>\n
Jamie Leweling's powerful strike from range – not in the bottom corner – went straight through the 39-year-old goalkeeper for the visitors' third.<\/p>\n
Tiago Tomas added a fourth in the closing stages to compound a disappointing night for Celtic, who host Hibernian and go to Rangers in the Scottish Premiership, either side of next Thursday's unlikely salvage mission in Germany.<\/p>\n
Sportsound: Celtic face Europa League exit<\/strong><\/p>\n 19\/02\/2026 18:00<\/p>\n Listen on Sounds<\/a><\/p>\n With fans protesting against the club's board at the start of the game and later ironically cheering Schmeichel making a save, the atmosphere at Parkhead was far from harmonious.<\/p>\n "It's bitterly disappointing," former Celtic captain and manager Neil Lennon said of the jeers directed at Schmeichel.<\/p>\n "He had a bad night but it still doesn't warrant that kind of treatment."<\/p>\n Thursday night was the latest in a string of perceived errors made by Schmeichel, following Joe Hugill's looping header for Kilmarnock last weekend and Jonathan Rowe's effort for Bologna last month.<\/p>\n Perhaps unsurprisingly, Celtic closed ranks around their embattled goalkeeper post-match.<\/p>\n "It's a tough evening for us," interim manager Martin O'Neill said. "On paper, 4-1 looks pretty poor. <\/p>\n "We were masters of our own downfall in many respects, conceded some poor goals.<\/p>\n "Kasper [Schmeichel] has made some great saves while I've been here. This is a collective, there's no doubt about that.<\/p>\n "We played Feyenoord in a game we probably had to win and he made an unbelievable save, otherwise we wouldn't be here playing tonight.<\/p>\n "I will think about all sorts of things [before the next game], but Kasper has done really well since I've arrived at the football club, in both spells."<\/p>\n Captain Callum McGregor added: "Everyone makes mistakes. <\/p>\n "Kasper has been amazing since he's come to the club. He'll dust that down. We win as a team and lose as a team. <\/p>\n "There's no blame, he's made so many big saves for us. He'll bounce back for sure."<\/p>\n Celtic endure punishing night at hands of ruthless Stuttgart<\/p>\n <\/a><\/li>\n Celtic given full Ibrox stand in Scottish Cup<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n There is evidence that – particularly in Europe – Schmeichel has underperformed this season. <\/p>\n He has conceded 19 goals in nine Europa League matches this term, with a save percentage of just 62.<\/p>\n Celtic's expected goals on target conceded – the likelihood of an on-target shot resulting in a goal – is 13.96 across those games. In essence, Schmeichel has conceded four goals more than the data would expect him to.<\/p>\n McFadden thinks Celtic's season could go one way or another based on whether O'Neill decides to stick with Schmeichel or promote understudy Viljami Sinisalo.<\/p>\n "Does the season hinge on it? It might do because if Martin O'Neill opts to stick with Kasper Schmeichel, that's a big decision. If he opts to change him, that's a big decision.<\/p>\n "If you feel that's the decision to be made because you feel more secure at the back, then you make it."<\/p>\n One man who knows what it feels like to line up between the sticks at Parkhead is BBC Scotland pundit Pat Bonner, who thinks a change should be made.<\/p>\n "My opinion is that Sinisalo should have got a run in the team earlier this season," he said.<\/p>\n Despite Schmeichel's mistakes, Lennon also questioned the way Celtic performed as a collective on a night when Stuttgart proved far too strong.<\/p>\n "Celtic lacked a lot of power and intensity, certainly in a defensive capacity," he said. "It was far too easy, far too stand-offish.<\/p>\n "That is not a Martin O'Neill team or a Martin O'Neill performance.<\/p>\n "I cannot believe the lack of passion."<\/p>\n Visit our Celtic page for all the latest news, analysis and fan views<\/p>\n <\/a><\/li>\n Get Celtic news notifications in the BBC Sport app<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Schmeichel in spotlight after night of gloom for CelticImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Kasper Schmeichel was at fault for two of Stuttgart's four goals at ParkheadByGeorge O'NeillBB…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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'Sinisalo should have got a run in the team earlier this season'<\/h2>\n
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