Celtic move into UEFA Cup quarter-finals

Celtic lost 3-2 at VfB Stuttgart but had done enough to earn passage into the UEFA Cup quarter-finals thanks to two goals in the first 15 minutes to effectively kill off the tie.

Alan Thompson got the first goal in the 13th minute, following good work by John Hartson and Didier Agathe, with Chris Sutton getting the second two minutes later.

Martin O'Neill's men went through 5-4 on aggregate and can still dream of a second European trophy following their 1967 European Cup triumph under Jock Stein.

O'Neill said afterwards: "We got off to a fantastic start and scored not once but twice which was great and from then on we were in control of the match.

"Then Alan Thompson got injured. We were still in control but the last 20 minutes were an eternity. We scored away goals against what I consider a very good team."

With his side 3-1 down from the first leg at Parkhead a week ago, Stuttgart manager Felix Magath had promised to lay siege to the Celtic defence early on.

O'Neill brought back Robert Douglas, Joos Valgaeren, Bobo Balde, Thompson, Sutton, Agathe, Neil Lennon and Stilian Petrov.

Paul Lambert stayed in the side after another impressive performance at the weekend and Ulrik Laursen was favoured ahead of Johan Mjallby and Jackie McNamara in defence.

The home side gave Celtic an early sign of what was in store when Zvonimir Soldo fired over from a tight angle after just 20 seconds of the game starting.

But Celtic stunned the home side by grabbing an all important away goal.

Hartson flicked on Agathe's cross and Thompson came in at the back post to head past Timo Hilderbrand from six yards out.

And things were to get so much better when Agathe outstripped Timo Wenzel for pace and squared for Sutton to fire into an empty net from close range.

Celtic were now 5-1 up on aggregate, but Stuttgart could have pulled a goal back in the 17th minute when Balde deflected Andreas Hinkel's shot, but Douglas made a great save.

But the home side did give themselves a very slight glimmer of hope when they pulled a goal back in the 38th minute.

Joos Valgaeren and Laursen both stood and watched as Christian Tiffert came in alone at the far post to head Heiko Gerber's cross past Douglas and into the corner of the net.

Stuttgart coach Magath made a change at the break with Ioan Ganea coming on for Steffen Dangelmayr, who made a costly error at Parkhead last week.

Aleksandr Gleb pulled another goal back with 15 minutes remaining after Ganea had headed Kevin Kuranyi's cross wide from six yards.

Michael Mutzel gave Stuttgart the lead on the night in the 87th minute to give the visitors a few anxious moments late on - but the Scottish side held on to book their place in the quarter-finals.