UEFA CUP: Martin O'Neill admitted yesterday his side need to score in Stuttgart - but he cannot guarantee that lessons have been learned from their early season disaster in Switzerland.

Celtic hold a 3-1 lead over Stuttgart going into tonight's UEFA Cup second leg, but that scoreline was not enough to safeguard their place in the Champions League in August.

On that miserable night in Basel they missed out on Europe's premier club competition after being beaten 2-0.

O'Neill admits those memories will be in the mind tonight, but he concedes his side could easily miss out on the possible mouth-watering quarter-final tie with Liverpool.

O'Neill said yesterday: "The whole club were disappointed at not getting through, but I don't know whether we have learned a lesson. We need to score tomorrow night. We could quite easily get beaten, but it won't be through lack of effort.

"We can still concede goals and there are all sorts of permutations, and we could lose goals just minutes into the game. That's not to say we wouldn't have learned from the first game, but I would say we are mindful of it."

O'Neill believes chances will abound for both sides in Germany tonight - but is confident lightning will not strike twice.

"We are capable of doing it. If you turn your mind back to the Basle game the truth is we spurned great opportunities and their goalkeeper made some great saves.

"But we created chances in the game and we have have now had a good run in Europe and we will create more chances tomorrow. I just hope we can take one or two of those chances."

The Celtic boss insists his side are still learning about European football and have still some way to go before they are on a par with the continent's finest. "We are getting lots of experience but there is still a long way to go before we reach seven consecutive quarter-finals of the Champions League," said O'Neill, in reference to Manchester United.

"We have Shaun Maloney, Jamie Smith and Stephen Crainey and some younger lads like John Kennedy and David Marshall on the bench - it's great experience for them."

Despite his caution, O'Neill is adamant his players have not got carried away with their 3-1 success at Parkhead last week.

O'Neill said: "The players got a boost from winning the game considering the circumstances. We will go into the game with confidence - but we are not over-confident."

The Derry man will bring back his rested stars, after they were left out of Sunday's Scottish Cup victory over St Johnstone. The likes of Chris Sutton, Bobo Balde, Robert Douglas, Joos Valgaeren, Neil Lennon, Didier Agathe and Stilian Petrov will all come back.

But his biggest decision this week has been whether to bring back Maloney to partner John Hartson or Chris Sutton or go with the Welshman and Englishman in attack.

"Shaun has been figuring prominently in my thoughts and we will need to score a goal which is something we have done in the last couple of games away from home."

O'Neill is also considering whether to stay with Johan Mjallby, who looked well short of match fitness on his return to the side on Sunday. The Swedish international defender shocked everyone with his recovery from a thigh problem, but the European tie could be too soon for him.

"It's hard to say," conceded O'Neill. "He's obviously pretty well short of match fitness. He did okay on Sunday and this is a very important game for us."