O'Neill eager to heed lessons of Basle

Martin O'Neill admits 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 fourth round, second leg, but that scoreline was not enough to safeguard their place in the Champions' League in August.

On that night in Basle they missed out after being beaten 2-0. O'Neill admits those memories will be in the mind tonight, but he concedes his side could easily suffer the same fate and miss out on a possible quarter-final meeting with Liverpool.

"The whole club were disappointed at not getting through, but I don't know whether we have learned a lesson," O'Neill said. "We need to score [tonight]. 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 that we wouldn't have learned from the first game, but I would say we are mindful of it."

O'Neill believes chances will be abound for both sides, but is confident lightning will not strike twice. He continued: "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 now had a good run in Europe and we will create more chances. I just hope we can take one or two of those chances."

The Celtic manager believes his side are still learning about European football: "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.

"Manchester United are some distance in front of most teams in Europe. It's been a good experience for everybody concerned. 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."

The Northern Irishman will bring back his rested players left out of Sunday's Tennent'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 return.

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

"It wouldn't matter if we had a training session or not," said O'Neill. "I have a fair idea what the team will be. 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."