Celtic midfielder Benjamin Nygren insists their Europa League knockout play-off tie is still only half done despite the commanding 4-1 lead Stuttgart hold ahead of the return leg next week.
Bilal El Khannouss' first-half double either side of Nygren's cool finish put Stuttgart in control as they punished defensive fragility to leave the home side with a mountain to climb to progress.
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel had a night to forget, looking at fault for the first and third goals as he tamely failed to stop Jamie Leweling's second-half strike before Tiago Tomas netted a late fourth.
Celtic will now have to create history and win in Germany for the fist time, by a sizable scoreline to have any hope of progression.
"Then we'll have to make it the first one," Nygren said of the club record of never having won on German soil.
"It's only half of it played so it's still 90 minutes over there and everything can happen.
[It's] not the result we wanted of course. All of us wanted to do very good in this competition and obviously today we made it very hard for ourselves. So it's very disappointing."
Kasper Schmeichel was at fault for at least two Stuttgart goals and was booed by sections of the home support having been unconvincing at times this season.
"It's not nice to hear," Nygren explained. "I cannot point on one person. It's not one person's mistake.
"We're eleven players on the pitch and it's everyone's responsibility to do well. So all of the team stands together.
The Swedish midfielder, who netted his 18th goal to level the tie at 1-1, insisted the immediate focus is to not let the outcome impact on the title race in which they host Hibernian on Sunday.
"That's what the manager spoke about in the dressing room," he said.
"We have to drop this game as fast as possible and have our focus on the games ahead."
"You can always learn something but the games come very quick now so you need to have the focus on the next game."
