Football betting tips: Europa League
1.25pts Over 2.5 Celtic cards at 2/1 (General)
0.75pt Over 2.5 cards for each team at 7/1 (Sky Bet)
Considering the chaotic nature of Celtic's season, it's quite an achievement that they've reached this stage of the Europa League.
It feels like years not months since Brendan Rodgers departed the club. That happened at the end of October and the sheer amount of change over the period since has almost distorted our perception of the timeline.
Wilfried Nancy's short-lived spell was sandwiched in between Martin O'Neill's not one but two surprise appearances in the Celtic dugout.
While we are used to seeing them dominant at the top of the Scottish pyramid, O'Neill has done well to oversee 15 wins in his 18 outings - Midtjylland the only one to get the better of his side when they were comfortable in a 3-1 Europa League victory back in November.
The confidence should be there given the fact he has guided them to commanding wins over Dutch duo Feyenoord and Utrecht in this competition - while a point away at Bologna will have also been viewed as a bonus.
Stuttgart pose a threat and a serious one at that. Early losses to Basel and Fenerbahce proved fatal in their quest for a top eight finish but they've demonstrated in Germany's top-flight their strength in attack in recent weeks.
Five of their nine league games since a 5-0 home hammering by Bayern Munich have seen Stuttgart netting at least three. Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt were two of those sides on the receiving end.
I'm not sure this Celtic defence has what it takes to keep their opponents quiet. After all, they conceded twice in each of their previous two European outings while only keeping one clean sheet across their last four in the league.
We have to remember that this is the first leg of a two-legged tie and therefore it may not be wise to make it a wild, end-to-end contest, but that said Celtic will know the importance of holding a lead when they head to Germany.
It could therefore become scrappy at times and I do like the appeal of the 2/1 on CELTIC OVER 2.5 CARDS in this one.
The home win over Utrecht (where Celtic were 2/5 favourites) saw them shown two, both of which were in the first-half, while there were three cards, one a red, in the draw at Bologna.
Again, all of Celtic's cards came in the first-half and I do wonder how drawn in the players will be to the crowd's atmosphere early on. O'Neill will hammer home the point of making a positive start.
Three cards were shown to Celtic last time out as they beat Kilmarnock with two shown despite being 1/11 favourites at home to Livingston a few days earlier.
Perhaps the away draw with Hearts was the closest recent game to what we'll expect here in terms of difficulty. That delivered a huge total of seven cards, one being a red.
Considering Stuttgart were fourth for yellows shown in the previous stage of the Europa League while they rank sixth in the Bundesliga, I'll also side with a smaller stakes play on BOTH SIDES OVER 2.5 CARDS.
Referee Erik Lambrechts has shown he can be strict when required with five yellows shown in his previous European outing - that being Chelsea's 1-0 win over Pafos in the Champions League.
Odds correct at 11:15 GMT (18/02/26)
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