Stuttgart(A) - 26/02/26

There was no spring in the step this morning; no eagerness to get up and get on with the day.

Match days - especially midweek European ones – usually come with a frenzied energy. Enthusiasm, fuelled by an excited, healthy(hmmm) proactive anxiety. Up and out with an alacrity I don’t usually display on a non-footballing, docile, mundane Tuesday let’s say.

All of this; work, messages, making plans, predictions, podcasts and general day to day tasks, only really serve to kill time. Massacre the vast expanse of purgatorial limbo between 8am and 8pm, before I can get to the good bit, and the whistle blows.

There was none of that this morning though. I’d almost forgot about the game, managing to somehow to bury it deep down in my conscious along with other stuff labelled “Can’t be arsed.”

What is usually exciting has become a total inconvenience, a nuisance.

Watching from behind the couch with nervous anticipation is very different from being unable to watch due to pure mortification.

It’s logical to expect a managed, rotated side tonight.

That prospect, coupled with the distinct gulf between the sides in the first leg, is enough to make you wince.

The stasis of Celtic in Europe was broken by last season’s brief competence. This is a polar swing back to the doldrums. It’s realistic to expect a 5/6/7 – 1 aggregate score against a team that isn’t anything special.

Our hope is that – like Celtic – Stuttgart has an eye on the weekend and via prioritisation, we are the beneficiary of some sort of selfish mercy.

Depressing.