Celtic fans have travelled to Stuttgart without much hope or expectation.
After a 4-1 first-leg defeat at Celtic Park, Martin O’Neill’s side have a mountain to climb in the second leg.
As a result, many Hoops fans are calling for the interim boss to field a weakened side given the seismic Glasgow Derby at Ibrox around the corner.
Turning the tie around feels all-but impossible… but has been done, once before.
Should Martin O’Neill field a rotated side vs Stuttgart to focus on the Rangers game?
What would you do?
Celtic’s Europa League task against Stuttgart has been done before
Only one team in UEFA competition has ever recovered from a first-leg defeat by a margin of three or more goals; that was Dinamo Bucharest against Slovan Liberec in 2009.
However, there were pretty unique circumstances surrounding that match.
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The tie, which was the final qualifying round before the Europa League group stage, saw Dinamo fall two goals behind at home in the first leg.
In the 87th minute, home supporters invaded the pitch in protest, forcing the match to be abandoned and landing the club a hefty fine.
UEFA ruled the tie as a 3-0 defeat for the Romanian side, leaving them with an even bigger mountain to climb than Celtic have, given that away goals were still a thing.
But Dinamo turned it around, winning the return leg 3-0 in Liberec and prevailing in a lengthy penalty shootout. They went on to finish third in a group with Panathinaikos, Galatasaray and Sturm Graz.
If Celtic can achieve the impossible and take the tie to extra time, the players would need wrapped in cotton wool in the days before Sunday.
Rangers have the week off, having been eliminated in the league phase after winning just one of their eight games.
They haven’t won at Ibrox since Brendan Rodgers’ first season after returning, when Kyogo Furuhashi scored the only goal in a hard-fought victory.
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Martin O’Neill on Celtic’s tie against Stuttgart
Speaking ahead of the game in Germany, O’Neill was asked if Bodo/Glimt’s Champions League victory over Inter Milan had offered him any hope after his comments about the financial disparity in European football.
His answer was telling: “I think there’s always an exception that proves the rule like anything else. Those are terrific efforts by them that they’ve shown in European football.
“They have a massive advantage first of all in home legs because they play on an artificial surface for a start, but then they travel to Inter and win the game.
“I don’t know what the stat was. I think somebody mentioned it coming off the plane but it was a very very small possession.
“So they’ve taken everything and it was fantastic.”
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