Chris Sutton has praised Celtic’s ‘gutsy’ performance in Stuttgart as they bowed out of the Europa League on Thursday night.
This was an expected result because Celtic lost the first leg of their play-off tie 4-1 at Parkhead, so Martin O’Neill’s side were always up against it.
But Celtic secured a 1-0 second-leg win, including Viljami Sinisalo securing a clean sheet, and now Sutton is backing him to start against Rangers on Sunday.
“A gutsy and organised performance from Celtic,” said Sutton. “Sinisalo’s clean sheet and good performance earned his place for Ibrox.”
There has already been a lot of noise around Kasper Schmeichel this season, and you suspect this Sinisalo display will only ramp it up even further.
Celtic’s Europa League run comes to an end despite the win against Stuttgart 🥲
But who gets your man of the match from that spirited performance?
Chris Sutton praises Celtic’s ‘gutsy’ performance in Stuttgart, backs Viljami Sinisalo to start at Rangers
As Sutton stated, ‘the best team went through’, even though Celtic made a fight of it in Germany, and did produce a few scares here and there.
You do wonder if Sinisalo had started the first leg, whether or not Celtic would have been in better shape for the return leg.
The reason is O’Neill now has a big call to make as to who will be in goal for Celtic moving forward. Many Celtic fans don’t want it to be Schmeichel, and Sutton is standing with them.
“In truth, the best team went through,” said Sutton on social media. “However, a gutsy and organised performance from Celtic, but not enough control and forward threat against a good Stuttgart team.
“Sinisalo’s clean sheet and good performance earned his place for Ibrox… lots of decisions for Martin to make.”
How Sinisalo rated for Celtic in Stuttgart
Whatever O’Neill decides on Sunday, one thing is for sure: Sinisalo has done all he could because that was a top, top performance.
In truth, Stuttgart should have scored in the second half, but they were kept out by Celtic’s rising star in between the sticks.
WhoScored rated Sinisalo’s performance at a rather impressive 8.37.
- Clean Sheet: 1
- Saves: 6
- Saves from inside the box: 4
- Punches: 1
- Runs out successfully: 1
- High claims: 1
- Passes: 32
- Passing accuracy: 65.6%
- Accurate long balls: 9
- Clearances: 2
- WhoScored rating: 8.37
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