Celtic v Stuttgart: What Hoops can expect from German cup winners in Europa League

Tom Weber

• 17 Feb 2026 05:00 CST
• 5 min read

Analysis

Celtic host VfB Stuttgart in the Europa League on Thursday in what promises to be the first of two hugely exciting games in the Europa League playoffs.

Martin O'Neill's men will welcome the reigning German cup winners to Parkhead, and it is bound to be a stiff test for the Hoops, who remain something of an unknown commodity under the 73-year-old interim boss.

Celtic were defensively frail against Kilmarnock at the weekend, but they managed to turn things around and win the game thanks to a stoppage-time goal from January signing Julian Araujo.

Stuttgart, by contrast, are coming off a 3-1 victory against Koln. What looked a fairly comfortable game when Ermedin Demirovic put them ahead in the 15th minute became an increasingly dicey affair in the second half.

Koln put Stuttgart under pressure and scored a deserved equaliser through Ragnar Ache in the 79th minute. However, the Swabians immediately bounced back and scored twice to put the game to bed.

How do Stuttgart play?

It was a game that was quite symbolic of Sebastian Hoeness' reign as head coach of Stuttgart. The 2007 Bundesliga champions have been exceptional at responding to setbacks under the highly-rated coach.

It was Hoeness who saved them from the brink of relegation in 2022/23 and turned them into Bundesliga runners-up the following season, which saw them qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2009/10.

Naturally, given their swift rise, they were not equipped to deal with having three games per week, and their form suffered as a result in 2024/25. They finished the Bundesliga season in ninth, but they did win their first major piece of silverware since that 2007 championship by beating third-tier Arminia Bielefeld in the DFB-Pokal final.

Currently, Stuttgart are in the midst of another impressive season under Hoeness. They are fourth in the Bundesliga and have a significantly deeper squad than last season, which has allowed them to be competitive on multiple fronts.

The Swabians have won five of their last six games, although they did recently suffer a stinging defeat to relegation-battlers St. Pauli. This result laid bare some frailties. Hoeness opted to rest defensive bulwark Jeff Chabot, a decision that backfired.

It also illustrated that Stuttgart are very reliant on their two strikers, Demirovic and Deniz Undav, for goals. With the exception of winger Jamie Leweling, the Bundesliga side do not have many other consistently dangerous outfield players. Chris Fuhrich and Bilal El Khannouss have bags of talent, but they need to show it more often.

Do not let this fool you, however. Stuttgart are a very strong team across the board. Germany international Angelo Stiller is one of the best midfielders in European football, Real Madrid academy graduate Chema Andres is a hugely promising talent and the defence is, for the most part, quite solid.

Fatigue should also not play a huge part going into the game against Celtic because Hoeness opted to rest several key players against Koln. Stiller started on the bench as he had been ill in the days leading up to the match.

So, how do Stuttgart actually play? Hoeness generally sets his side up in a 4-2-3-1 in which his full-backs - usually Maximilian Mittelstadt on the left and Josha Vagnoman on the right - push up fairly high, while midfielders Stiller and Atakan Karazor or Chema drop deeper.

Vagnoman, in particular, loves to get forward. To open up space for the right-back, Stuttgart like to build up on the left flank with Fuhrich dropping deep to create overloads with Stiller and Mittelstadt.

Unlike some coaches who like to play possession-based, short-passing football, Hoeness is not wedded to this approach and often instructs goalkeeper Alexander Nubel to punt the ball long to exploit the physicality of versatile forward Jamie Leweling. When Stuttgart see an opening, they attack it with blistering pace to create overloads in the box.

Defensively, the Germans employ a man-marking high-press in an attempt to turn over the ball in dangerous areas of the pitch, which then allows them to spring their rapid counter-attacks. When protecting a lead, they sometimes drop back into a 4-4-2, but Hoeness generally wants his team to play progressively, even when they already have the lead.

If the same Celtic that conceded twice to Kilmarnock turn up against Stuttgart, they will get torn to shreds. Sitting deep - yes, even at Celtic Park - and trying to be defensively solid first and foremost could be the Hoops' best bet against Hoeness' in-form Swabians.

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