Celtic’s four-passer should not be far behind Rangers’ starting XI.

It was ultimately a positive night for Celtic despite the damage they had suffered a week earlier, with the Scottish champions once again being eliminated in the play-off round of European competition.

Germany was a heartbreaking scene for the Hoops a year ago, when they were eliminated at the hands of Bayern Munich in the Champions League, but this time they won at least the second leg of the Europa League.

Martin O’Neill’s side, who were 4-1 down following last week’s Parkhead horror show, got off to the best possible start in Stuttgart, with a much-changed side taking the lead inside the minute through Luke McCowan.

Despite an early scare, the Bundesliga side were firmly in control from then on, but the visitors never seemed to pull off an impressive comeback.

Indeed, the result of the first leg ensured that Sunday’s derby will also be a bigger game, but Thursday’s result at least gives O’Neill plenty to think about ahead of the trip to Ibrox.

Why Celtic’s best performers are in contention to start at Ibrox

With such an important game on the horizon, O’Neill opted to make a major shuffle of his squad at Stuttgart, with Callum McGregor, Hyun-Jung Yang and the suspended Auston Trusty the only players remaining from the loss to Hibernian.

These changes were no doubt made to give the players lined up to start Sunday a rest, but they may have given O’Neal some welcome headaches ahead of the game against the Rangers, where a series of “fringe” players will all be at bat.

In goal, Villami Sinisalo has more than made his case to permanently replace the ill-fated Kasper Schmeichel, while up front young Dane Murray has proved immensely effective at centre-back and is no doubt pushing to become Trustee’s successor in the country.

It’s another positive development for diminutive left-back Marcelo Saracchi, as well as the aforementioned No. 10 McCowan, although overtaking Kieran Tierney is unlikely at the moment.

18-goal hero Benjamin Nygren looks set to start against Danny Rohr’s side, but McCowan will surely close in on him and the former Dundee man will round off Celtic’s dominant move with a composed finish.

The Scot pounced on a well-weighted pass from January signing Junior Adam, and the Austrian striker’s brilliant display for the away team certainly changed any potential plans for Sunday.

Celtic substitute absent from derby

Adam, the hero of the Scottish Cup game against Dundee, was not an embarrassment at Rugby Park, but he was hooked on the break against Kilmarnock and at one stage teed up Daen Maeda, who brilliantly held off his opponent.

Again against Stuttgart, the 24-year-old played brilliantly in the backline for the Freiburg loanee’s return to Germany, winning five duels on the night, completing 100% of his dribble attempts and adding an assist.

The former Red Bulls Salzburg man didn’t even come off the bench against Hibs, but Thursday night’s performance could have given him an advantage over Tomas Kvankala in the centre-forward pecking order, with the Czech striker not even coming off the bench.

Kvankala, who was previously substituted at the hour mark at the weekend, missed out on a chance to start at Ibrox this time with a dismal late cameo and proved too ineffective as Celtic looked to make a second-half comeback.

The 25-year-old, in contrast to Adam, was not very strong as a physical center and was unable to hold onto the ball, as evidenced by his losing the ball in nine out of 16 touches (an average of 1 in 1.7 touches).

The 6-foot-3 forward, who also recorded just 40% passing accuracy, looked clumsy on and off the ball and never looked like the guy to start late-game heroics for O’Neill’s men.

Indeed, the best start of the second half came when the returning Nigerian teed up Sebastian Tunekuti following a run in the home defence, thanks to fellow substitute Kelechi Iheanacho.

Kvankala will be fearing the worst heading into Sunday, with Iheanacho also in the running to start again and Adam looking positive in the first half.