{"id":191360,"date":"2026-02-20T09:33:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/02\/20\/schmeichel-in-spotlight-after-night-of-gloom-for-celtic\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:33:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:33:05","slug":"schmeichel-in-spotlight-after-night-of-gloom-for-celtic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/02\/20\/schmeichel-in-spotlight-after-night-of-gloom-for-celtic\/","title":{"rendered":"Schmeichel in spotlight after night of gloom for Celtic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

At half-time in Celtic’s eventual <\/b>4-1 Europa League play-off defeat by Stuttgart<\/b>, the focus was on home goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.<\/b><\/p>\n

“It looks to me as if he is not expecting shots, which is strange for a goalkeeper,” former Scotland forward James McFadden said. “He’s expecting defenders to stop every shot.<\/p>\n

“Teams will be saying there appears to be a weakness to his left-hand side.”<\/p>\n

The Denmark shot-stopper had been beaten down to his left by a tame Bilal El Khannouss shot for Stuttgart’s opening goal, before the on-loan Leicester City man added a second with a free header from seven yards out.<\/p>\n

And at full-time, attention was on Schmeichel again.<\/p>\n

Jamie Leweling’s powerful strike from range – not in the bottom corner – went straight through the 39-year-old goalkeeper for the visitors’ third.<\/p>\n

Tiago Tomas added a fourth in the closing stages to compound a disappointing night for Celtic, who host Hibernian and go to Rangers in the Scottish Premiership, either side of next Thursday’s unlikely salvage mission in Germany.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

With fans protesting against the club’s board at the start of the game and later ironically cheering Schmeichel making a save, the atmosphere at Parkhead was far from harmonious.<\/p>\n

“It’s bitterly disappointing,” former Celtic captain and manager Neil Lennon said of the jeers directed at Schmeichel.<\/p>\n

“He had a bad night but it still doesn’t warrant that kind of treatment.”<\/p>\n

Thursday night was the latest in a string of perceived errors made by Schmeichel, following Joe Hugill’s looping header for Kilmarnock last weekend and Jonathan Rowe’s effort for Bologna last month.<\/p>\n

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Celtic closed ranks around their embattled goalkeeper post-match.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tough evening for us,” interim manager Martin O’Neill said. “On paper, 4-1 looks pretty poor. <\/p>\n

“We were masters of our own downfall in many respects, conceded some poor goals.<\/p>\n

“Kasper [Schmeichel] has made some great saves while I’ve been here. This is a collective, there’s no doubt about that.<\/p>\n

“We played Feyenoord in a game we probably had to win and he made an unbelievable save, otherwise we wouldn’t be here playing tonight.<\/p>\n

“I will think about all sorts of things [before the next game], but Kasper has done really well since I’ve arrived at the football club, in both spells.”<\/p>\n

Captain Callum McGregor added: “Everyone makes mistakes. <\/p>\n

“Kasper has been amazing since he’s come to the club. He’ll dust that down. We win as a team and lose as a team. <\/p>\n

“There’s no blame, he’s made so many big saves for us. He’ll bounce back for sure.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

There is evidence that – particularly in Europe – Schmeichel has underperformed this season. <\/p>\n

He has conceded 19 goals in nine Europa League matches this term, with a save percentage of just 62.<\/p>\n

Celtic’s expected goals on target conceded – the likelihood of an on-target shot resulting in a goal – is 13.96 across those games. In essence, Schmeichel has conceded four goals more than the data would expect him to.<\/p>\n

McFadden thinks Celtic’s season could go one way or another based on whether O’Neill decides to stick with Schmeichel or promote understudy Viljami Sinisalo.<\/p>\n

“Does the season hinge on it? It might do because if Martin O’Neill opts to stick with Kasper Schmeichel, that’s a big decision. If he opts to change him, that’s a big decision.<\/p>\n

“If you feel that’s the decision to be made because you feel more secure at the back, then you make it.”<\/p>\n

One man who knows what it feels like to line up between the sticks at Parkhead is BBC Scotland pundit Pat Bonner, who thinks a change should be made.<\/p>\n

“My opinion is that Sinisalo should have got a run in the team earlier this season,” he said.<\/p>\n

Despite Schmeichel’s mistakes, Lennon also questioned the way Celtic performed as a collective on a night when Stuttgart proved far too strong.<\/p>\n

“Celtic lacked a lot of power and intensity, certainly in a defensive capacity,” he said. “It was far too easy, far too stand-offish.<\/p>\n

“That is not a Martin O’Neill team or a Martin O’Neill performance.<\/p>\n

“I cannot believe the lack of passion.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At half-time in Celtic’s eventual 4-1 Europa League play-off defeat by Stuttgart, the focus was on home goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. “It looks to me as if he is not expecting shots, which is strange for a goalkeeper,” former Scotland forward James McFadden said. “He’s expecting defenders to stop every shot. “Teams will be saying there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSchmeichel in spotlight after night of gloom for Celtic - Tahrir News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/02\/20\/schmeichel-in-spotlight-after-night-of-gloom-for-celtic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Schmeichel in spotlight after night of gloom for Celtic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At half-time in Celtic’s eventual 4-1 Europa League play-off defeat by Stuttgart, the focus was on home goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. “It looks to me as if he is not expecting shots, which is strange for a goalkeeper,” former Scotland forward James McFadden said. “He’s expecting defenders to stop every shot. “Teams will be saying there […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/02\/20\/schmeichel-in-spotlight-after-night-of-gloom-for-celtic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tahrir News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-20T09:33:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Tahrir News\",\"description\":\"News all over the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/02\/20\/schmeichel-in-spotlight-after-night-of-gloom-for-celtic\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/02\/20\/schmeichel-in-spotlight-after-night-of-gloom-for-celtic\/\",\"name\":\"Schmeichel in spotlight after night of gloom for Celtic - 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