Sebastian Tounekti ready for Europa League fight | OneFootball

Celtic go into their next European experience, tomorrow night’s UEFA Europa League first-leg play-off against VfB Stuttgart on the back of some very thrilling and breathtaking scorelines.

A crucial cog in those wins was Sebastian Tounekti who found the net in two of those three games over the past week, netting the extra-time winner in the Scottish Cup against Dundee and starting the dramatic and stylish comeback with Celtic’s first in Sunday’s dramatic and nail-biting 3-2 win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

It’s not just scoring or assisting, though. The Tunisian internationalist’s all-round play has been garnering plaudits from all corners, and he feels that is the fruition of the hard work put in on the pitches at Lennoxtown.

He said: “I feel like I am doing well at the moment, but I always want to improve.

“There is still a lot to improve and I’m just happy that I can help the team to win games. That’s the most important thing, so I will also try to do that.”

He added: “First of all, I’ve been doing my job on the training field a lot.

“I’ve been working with the coaching team, and they have helped me a lot, especially with videos and on the training ground working with the small stuff.

“We have a coaching team with some brilliant experience, so I’ve been working with every one of them.”

Tounekti could hardly have chosen a better time to come up with his big moments as the Hoops have plenty of big games on the horizon.

He said “I want to help the team to win games, and I feel like I’m a player than can do that.

“I feel like I have the quality to do that and the most important thing, as I said, I want to do everything I can to help the team to win games.

“I know that I can score and make assists, and I will try to help the team tomorrow again.

“We know that the game tomorrow is a special game, so we are focused on tomorrow.”

And as for how far the Celts can go in Europe this term, the Celt said: “We have to take it match to match because there are lots of teams in this competition who are great, and tomorrow it’s a fine team we are going to meet, so we just have to focus on the match.

“But we want to go as far as possible. We feel like we have the quality to do that, but we have to win games, that’s the most important thing.”

The backing of the supporters will go a long way to achieving those aims with European nights at Paradise traditionally having a sparkle of their very own.

Tounekti said: “The fans are special and everyone who grows up in football knows about the nights in the stadium.

“So, we know that those are really special, and the fans are really amazing, and I really hope they could be there tomorrow to give us the extra push we need because that’s really needed.”

More on the game:

Fixtures

Celtic Vs. VfB Stuttgart 1893 AG - Thu, Feb 19th 2026, 20:00