Add Dortmund to Paris, Barcelona and Madrid on the growing list of Celtic’s Champions League crime scenes.
Confronted by the yellow wall of the Signal Iduna Park, Scotland’s champions crumbled and collapsed under the relentless pressure of last season’s beaten finalists. When Spanish referee Jose Maria Sanchez blew the final whistle, it felt like an act of mercy.
Brendan Rodgers described this as an acid test for his team and, in the cold light of day, they failed on every conceivable level. Had the old BBC final score vidiprinter still been in use, they’d have repeated the scoreline in words to emphasise just how outclassed Celtic were in every department.
Previously unbeaten in all competitions this season, the Parkhead side entered this game buoyed by the false dawn of a 5-1 thrashing of Slovan Bratislava. Unable to master the basics, panicked and spooked by the speed, tempo and clinical finishing of their opponents, this was a sobering step up in class.
Under Rodgers, Celtic have now conceded seven goals three times at this level, six goals once and had a 5-0 defeat thrown in for good measure — another hammering on foreign soil raises fundamental questions over the approach to these nights.
Had Celtic come away with a respectable, competitive performance, supporters might have accepted their fate. Yet, a commitment to going toe-to-toe with Europe’s best in their own back yard has brought repeated embarrassment.
It turned out to be a catastrophic evening at the Signal Iduna Park for Brendan Rodgers’ men
Alistair Johnston can’t bear to look as Dortmund players celebrate another goal
The Parkhead side were left stunned after shipping five goals in a one-sided first half
Listen, Celtic had never won on German soil in 14 attempts. Home and away, they’d won just four of their 28 meetings with teams from the Bundesliga, losing 19. There was always a likelihood of defeat here.
The issue lies in the dogged insistence on playing their normal game away from home against teams head and shoulders above the St Johnstones of this world.
Another one of those games in Europe best viewed through the cracks of the fingers, there was always a question mark over how a team lashing in goals at will in the Scottish Premiership would find a way to add steel and pragmatism to their game.
By failing to try, this became another one of these nights Celtic fans have now witnessed far too many times.
Under Rodgers, the Parkhead side slid to a 7-0 defeat to Barcelona in September 2016. Last season, they shipped six against Atletico Madrid.
Last night, despite Daizen Maeda instantly cancelling out Emre Can’s seventh-minute penalty, the loss of the injured Cameron Carter-Vickers at this level was felt keenly once more.
Daizen Maeda’s early goal was the one bright spot in an otherwise dreadful night for the Scots
Would he have made much difference? Probably not. At half-time, the score was 5-1 going on eight, Serhou Guirassy adding a sixth after twisting Liam Scales inside out after 67 minutes.
Every mistake was punished and Celtic made plenty, surrendering possession time after time. Celtic conceded two from 12 yards in a brutal first half, with the
outstanding Karim Adeyemi helping himself to a hat-trick before half-time. When the attacker left the fray injured early in the second half, it was the first piece of respite for Celtic after a relentless onslaught from their Bundesliga hosts.
Going behind to a Can penalty conceded by Kasper Schmeichel after seven minutes, the response was initially promising. Arne Engels swung in a cross and Maeda crept in to bundle the ball into the net from close range. It was, in every sense, a false dawn.
Within a minute, Dortmund were swarming back into attack to regain the lead through the peerless Adeyemi, exploiting the space in Auston Trusty’s area of the field. The striker’s shot took a wicked deflection off the boot of the £5million defender as he moved to block and sailed past a helpless Schmeichel for 2-1.
When Schmeichel produced a big save at his near post to prevent Guirassy thumping the third goal into the net after a delightful back heel from the No10, he was only delaying the inevitable.
Gasping for breath, toiling to deal with BvB’s speed, tempo and intensity, Celtic were struggling to stay in the game.
After 29 minutes, they failed to deal with a corner. There seemed to be little danger until Adeyemi picked the ball up on the edge of the area and smashed a quite thunderous effort at goal, Schmeichel surprised he’d hit it at all. An outstanding hit, Celtic’s keeper simply wasn’t expecting it.
Engels has earned plenty of praise for his displays since joining Celtic. Catching the foot of Adeyemi’s boot in the area, the Belgian conceded Celtic’s second penalty of the game. Guirassy took it this time, but the outcome was much the same. With five minutes until half-time, Celtic were 4-1 down.
Dortmund had no need of free gifts. Yet Celtic’s possession was summed up by Maeda giving the ball straight to Adeyemi on the edge of his own area three minutes before the break.
Karim Adeyemi racked up three first-half goals to put Celtic to the sword
Pouncing on the error, the gifted 22-year-old smashed the ball low past Schmeichel for goal No 5 and a first-half hat-trick. Another Celtic night in the Champions League was entering the realms of abject, gruesome humiliation. And it wasn’t done yet.
The departure of Mats Hummels, Jadon Sancho and Niclas Fullkrug in the summer was supposed to make Dortmund weaker. So much for that.
Two of the last four instances of a team scoring four goals in the first half of a Champions League game had involved Dortmund. The last time they’d done it, they’d scored eight against Legia Warsaw in November 2016.
They looked liable to repeat the feat here.
The introduction of Alex Valle and Reo Hatate did nothing to stem the flow of blood.
Most of the goals came from Celtic giving the ball away. Alistair Johnston conceded in his own half and, an instant later, Guirassy was turning Scales inside out to slide the sixth goal past Schmeichel at his right-hand post.
A hideous introduction to this level for Trusty then saw the American pass the ball straight to Felix Nmecha with 11 minutes to play, the substitute smashing the ball beyond Schmeichel for 7-1.
There wasn’t much solace for Celtic beyond the blunt knowledge that the scoreline could have been so much worse. On a day when the youth team lost 4-0 to the same opponents, an aggregate scoreline of 11-1 told an old, increasingly familiar story.
Defiant to the last, Celtic supporters cheered their team to the rafters at time up. The only way the spectacle could only have been more misplaced was if they’d belted out a chorus of doh-a-deer.
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Publish date : 2024-10-01 15:30:00
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