4-pass Celtic star should now be nowhere near the starting XI for Rangers

A positive night in the end for Celtic, although the damage had been done a week earlier, with the Scottish champions once again crashing out in the playoff round of a European competition.

Germany was the scene of the Hoops’ Champions League heartbreak a year ago, having been undone at the death by Bayern Munich, although they did at least win the second-leg this time around in the Europa League.

Trailing 4-1 following last week’s Parkhead horror show, Martin O’Neill‘s men got off to the best possible start in Stuttgart, with a much-changed side nudging ahead inside a minute through Luke McCowan.

Despite that early scare, the Bundesliga side were firmly in control from then on, however, with the visitors never truly looking like mounting a stirring comeback.

In truth, the first-leg result had ensured that Sunday’s derby was also going to be the bigger game, although Thursday’s showing has at least given O’Neill plenty of food for thought heading into the trip to Ibrox.

Why Celtic’s best performers are now in contention for Ibrox start

With such a crucial fixture on the horizon, O’Neill opted to shuffle his pack extensively in Stuttgart, with Callum McGregor, Yang Hyun-Jun and the suspended Auston Trusty the only players retained from the defeat to Hibernian.

Those alterations were no doubt made to afford a rest to those in line to start on Sunday, although O’Neill may well have been handed a welcome headache heading into the Rangers clash, with a string of ‘fringe’ players all stepping up to the plate.

In goal, Viljami Sinisalo more than made his case to replace the under-fire Kasper Schmeichel on a permanent basis, while ahead of him, young Dane Murray was immense at centre-back, no doubt pushing to be the man to replace Trusty domestically.

While nudging ahead of Kieran Tierney seems improbable right now, it proved another positive outing for the diminutive Marcelo Saracchi at left-back, as it was for the aforementioned McCowan in that number ten berth.

18-goal hero Benjamin Nygren appears a shoo-in to start against Danny Rohl’s men, although McCowan will certainly run him close, with the ex-Dundee man rounding off a sweeping Celtic move with a composed finish into the far corner.

The Scot had pounced on a perfectly weighted pass from January arrival, Junior Adamu, with the bright showing of the away side’s Austrian striker surely altering any potential plans for Sunday.

Celtic substitute has played himself out of the derby

The hero in the Scottish Cup against Dundee, Adamu was hooked at the break against Kilmarnock, albeit while having not exactly disgraced himself at Rugby Park, holding off his man impressively at one stage to tee up Daizen Maeda.

Against Stuttgart again, the 24-year-old impressively worked the backline on what was the Freiburg loanee’s return to Germany, adding to his assist by winning five duels on the night, while completing 100% of his attempted dribbles.

The ex-Red Bulls Salzburg man didn’t even make it off the bench against Hibs, although his Thursday night showing may well have seen him edge ahead of Tomas Cvancara in the centre-forward pecking order, with the Czech striker having been abject off the bench.

Previously replaced on the hour mark at the weekend, Cvancara did his chances of an Ibrox start no favours following a dismal late cameo this time around, proving so ineffective as Celtic chased a comeback in that second half.

The 25-year-old, in contrast to Adamu, struggled to offer much as a physical focal point, with his inability to retain possession seen in how he lost the ball nine times from his 16 touches, an average of once every 1.7 touches.

Cvancara & Adamu vs Stuttgart
Stat	Cvancara	Adamu
Minutes	35	55
Touches	16	21
Pass accuracy	40%	60%
Key passes	0	1
Big chances created	0	1
Succ. dribbles	0/0	2/2
Ball lost	9	8
Total duels won	5/8	5/10
Carries	3	5

Also recording a meagre 40% pass accuracy rate, the 6 foot 3 forward looked clumsy in and out of possession, having never looked like being the man to kickstart any late heroics for O’Neil’s men.

Indeed, the best opening of the second-half actually came courtesy of fellow substitute, Kelechi Iheanacho, with the returning Nigerian teeing up Sebastian Tounekti following a driving run at the home defence.

With Iheanacho now also in the mix for a starting berth again, and Adamu having looked bright in the first half, Cvancara should well be fearing the worst heading into Sunday.