'Lucky' Celtic should account for Stuttgart

Graeme Souness today declared Celtic have every chance of dumping Stuttgart out of the UEFA Cup - because the Hoops had been …

Graeme Souness today declared Celtic have every chance of dumping Stuttgart out of the UEFA Cup - because the Hoops had been so lucky against his Blackburn Rovers side.

The former Rangers manager had come off second best earlier in the competition when Martin O'Neill's side triumphed both legs of a hotly-anticipated Battle of Britain contest.

Rovers had been the better side at Parkhead but still went back to Ewood Park trailing to a Henrik Larsson strike and when the tie resumed in Lancashire, Celtic were well worth their 2-0 victory.

Souness insisted: "Anything is possible. We feel that over the two games Celtic enjoyed all the luck against us. Certainly in the first game we shouldn't have got beat by them but there is no reason why they can't go all the way.

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"Luck plays a big part in football and if you keep enjoying that then anything can happen."

Of course, Celtic will be without Larsson for the tie, the first leg of which is at Parkhead on Thursday, as the Swede is out with a badly broken jaw.

Souness added: "They are going to miss him. He has been the difference for him over the last three or four seasons. Without a doubt they will miss his goals.

"Stuttgart are a team that do well in the German league. They are a good team. No German team is a muppet team so we will see what happens over the two games."

Souness, who was back in Glasgow to be inducted into the Rangers' Hall of Fame, also had a message of backing for beleaguered Scotland boss Berti Vogts, who suffered yet another defeat last week when the Republic of Ireland won 2-0 at Hampden Park.

He said: "I'm Scottish and I want the national team to do well, although I can't say I get upset over it - I've got my own problems to worry about.

"I think it is very unfair on Berti Vogts. Whatever criticism he is getting it is from people who don't understand the game of football because it doesn't matter how good a coach you are or what you have won as a player - if you haven't got the tools to work with you can't make a great team.

"I just think right now he is taking on a very difficult job. We don't have a lot of quality players. I couldn't tell you anyone better to do the job and that's me seeing it from a distance.

"We in Scotland should see how difficult a job he has got and support him. It goes in cycles and right now we are not producing enough good players to make a good national team."

Asked if he would consider taking the Scotland job, Souness joked: "No, I'm finished after the summer."