Borussia Dortmund 7-1 Celtic: Criminal defending costs Brendan Rodgers’s side dear
THE banner on the Yellow Wall read 'Uefa Mafia'.
The Celtic defence then made Borussia Dortmund a load of offers they couldn’t refuse.
It was Brendan Rodgers and his players who were guilty of criminal activity in Germany last night in this Champions League chasing.
One down inside five minutes.
By the time the half-time whistle went, Kasper Schmeichel had been beaten no less than FIVE times including a hat-rick from German international Karim Adeyemi.
In the end, Scotland’s Premiership champions were lucky the final score didn’t end up being double figures.
Genuinely, it could actually have happened.
For all his talk in the build-up, Rodgers’ side just couldn’t walk the walk as they suffered yet another humiliating defeat on the road in this competition.
Rodgers wanted his team to take their game to the next level.
Instead they’ve rarely been lower with Dortmund handing out as humbling result that at times had to be seen to be believed.
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All the positivity that Celtic gained from their opening group game victory over Slovan Bratislava, gone.
It was reminiscent of the agonising 7-0 thumping to Barcelona in September 2016 during Rodgers’ first stint in charge.
With Atalanta in Italy next for Celtic, they somehow need to find a way to lift themselves for this level of football.
But the harsh reality is that they’re nowhere near the elite of European football.
Dortmund’s first came from the penalty spot after Schmeichel brought down Jamie Gittens inside the box.
It was a stonewall spot-kick.
The big Dane clearly tripped the lightning quick attacker after he burst through the Celtic defence.
There was fortunate break of the ball off Callum McGregor.
But Rodgers’ defence was as wide as the Clyde at such an early stage of the game, when they should have been tight and compact.
Daizen Maeda scored a leveller came within four short minutes.
A lovely ball played into the six-yard box by Arne Engels caught the Dortmund defence on its heels this time.
As everyone in a yellow shirt stopped, Celtic’s no38 moved in to bundle the ball into the back of the net.
The away support went wild.
But no sooner were they jumping for joy, with limbs everywhere in their corner of the ground, they were crashing back down to earth.
Adeyemi restored the Bundesliga’s side’s lead with a shot which clipped off Auston Trusty’s food on its way past Schmeichel.
The Celts No1 would possibly have saved it otherwise.
But his centre-back - starting his first big European game with Cameron Carter-Vickers out injured - was far too slow off his mark initially.
Trusty had a two-yard head start on Adeyemi when the ball was played through to him yet he was outstripped because he didn’t sense the danger around him.
Dortmund had two big chances to score a third right after that and didn’t take them.
But this wasn’t a night when they’d regret being wasteful.
When it came to their third goal, Schmeichel had to do better.
The ball that flashed past him at his near post was hit with with some amount of power by Adeyemi.
But no top class goalkeeper should be beaten like that.
The Celtic supporters behind the goal - and the ones watching from behind their sofas back home - would have expected much, much better.
Even at that stage in was damage limitation for Celtic.
But Dortmund had no intention of taking their foot off the gas.
They got their fourth from another penalty after 39 minutes after Engels kicked Adeyemi.
It was an opportunity for the Germany attacker to get his hat-trick but it was Serhou Guirassy who grabbed the ball to score.
Adeyemi was clearly confident he’d get another one from open play and in 42 minutes he did just that.
Schmeichel was wrong-footed by his near-post shot which caught the veteran goalkeeper off guard yet again.
Rodgers had work to do at half-time to shore things up.
Taking off Paulo Bernardo and Greg Taylor - and throwing on Alex Valle and Reo Hatate - was all he could think of.
All he could hope for was Dortmund going easy on his team with the result already a forgone conclusion.
Even in the moments when Celtic did get up the park there was no conviction whatsoever.
Hatate almost set up Kyogo Furuhashi with a sprinting run and cross the striker wasn’t far away from reaching.
But it was far too little, far too late from Celtic when the game was effectively over.
Adam Idah and Yang Hyunjun were next to get stripped when they probably would have been happier staying on the bench.
Dortmund’s sixth came in 66 minutes, Guirassy slotting into the back of the net with ease.
It was yet another example of cool finishing which the Celtic defence simply had no answer to.
The final whistle couldn’t come quickly enough.
It was excruciating for the club’s supporters to watch with their team being ripped apart in front of their eyes. And yet it still wasn’t over.
In 79 minutes substitute Felix Nmecha went wild when he hit the net. You’d have thought it was a last minute winner the way he celebrated.
Around him the Celtic players fell to their knees.
Eventually, after it was all over, they trudged over to the away support in way of an apology.
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