It is SEVEN and hell for hapless Celtic as Dortmund joins record of current European humiliations

Add Dortmund to Paris, Barcelona and Madrid on the rising record of Celtic’s Champions League crime scenes.

Confronted by the yellow wall of the Sign Iduna Park, Scotland’s champions crumbled and collapsed underneath the relentless stress of final season’s overwhelmed finalists. When Spanish referee Jose Maria Sanchez blew the ultimate whistle, it felt like an act of mercy.

Brendan Rodgers described this as an acid check for his workforce and, within the chilly mild of day, they failed on each conceivable stage. Had the previous BBC ultimate rating vidiprinter nonetheless been in use, they’d have repeated the scoreline in phrases to emphasize simply how outclassed Celtic had been in each division.

Beforehand unbeaten in all competitions this season, the Parkhead facet entered this sport buoyed by the false daybreak of a 5-1 thrashing of Slovan Bratislava. Unable to grasp the fundamentals, panicked and spooked by the pace, tempo and scientific ending of their opponents, this was a sobering step up in school.

Beneath Rodgers, Celtic have now conceded seven targets 3 times at this stage, six targets as soon as and had a 5-0 defeat thrown in for good measure — one other hammering on international soil raises basic questions over the strategy to those nights.

Had Celtic come away with a good, aggressive efficiency, supporters may need accepted their destiny. But, a dedication to going toe-to-toe with Europe’s finest in their very own again yard has introduced repeated embarrassment.

Pay attention, Celtic had by no means received on German soil in 14 makes an attempt. Residence and away, they’d received simply 4 of their 28 conferences with groups from the Bundesliga, dropping 19. There was all the time a chance of defeat right here.

The problem lies within the dogged insistence on taking part in their regular sport away from residence in opposition to groups head and shoulders above the St Johnstones of this world.

One other a kind of video games in Europe finest seen by means of the cracks of the fingers, there was all the time a query mark over how a workforce lashing in targets at will within the Scottish Premiership would discover a means so as to add metal and pragmatism to their sport. 

By failing to strive, this grew to become one other considered one of these nights Celtic followers have now witnessed far too many instances.

Beneath Rodgers, the Parkhead facet slid to a 7-0 defeat to Barcelona in September 2016. Final season, they shipped six in opposition to Atletico Madrid.

Final evening, regardless of Daizen Maeda immediately cancelling out Emre Can’s seventh-minute penalty, the lack of the injured Cameron Carter-Vickers at this stage was felt keenly as soon as extra.

Would he have made a lot distinction? In all probability not. At half-time, the rating was 5-1 occurring eight, Serhou Guirassy including a sixth after twisting Liam Scales inside out after 67 minutes.

Each mistake was punished and Celtic made loads, surrendering possession time after time. Celtic conceded two from 12 yards in a brutal first half, with the

excellent Karim Adeyemi serving to himself to a hat-trick earlier than half-time. When the attacker left the fray injured early within the second half, it was the primary 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 online from shut vary. It was, in each sense, a false daybreak.

Inside a minute, Dortmund had been swarming again into assault to regain the lead by means of the peerless Adeyemi, exploiting the house in Auston Trusty’s space of the sector. The striker’s shot took a depraved deflection off the boot of the £5million defender as he moved to dam and sailed previous a helpless Schmeichel for 2-1.

When Schmeichel produced a giant save at his close to submit to forestall Guirassy thumping the third objective into the online after a pleasant again heel from the No10, he was solely delaying the inevitable.

Gasping for breath, toiling to take care of BvB’s pace, tempo and depth, Celtic had been struggling to remain within the sport.

After 29 minutes, they did not take care of a nook. There gave the impression to be little hazard till Adeyemi picked the ball up on the sting of the world and smashed a fairly thunderous effort at objective, Schmeichel stunned he’d hit it in any respect. An impressive hit, Celtic’s keeper merely wasn’t anticipating it.

Engels has earned loads of reward for his shows since becoming a member of Celtic. Catching the foot of Adeyemi’s boot within the space, the Belgian conceded Celtic’s second penalty of the sport. Guirassy took it this time, however the end result was a lot the identical. With 5 minutes till half-time, Celtic had been 4-1 down.

Dortmund had no want of free items. But Celtic’s possession was summed up by Maeda giving the ball straight to Adeyemi on the sting of his personal space three minutes earlier than the break.

Pouncing on the error, the gifted 22-year-old smashed the ball low previous Schmeichel for objective No 5 and a first-half hat-trick. One other Celtic evening within the Champions League was coming into the realms of abject, ugly humiliation. And it wasn’t completed but.

The departure of Mats Hummels, Jadon Sancho and Niclas Fullkrug in the summertime was purported to make Dortmund weaker. A lot for that.

Two of the final 4 situations of a workforce scoring 4 targets within the first half of a Champions League sport had concerned Dortmund. The final time they’d completed it, they’d scored eight in opposition to Legia Warsaw in November 2016.

They seemed liable to repeat the feat right here.

The introduction of Alex Valle and Reo Hatate did nothing to stem the movement of blood.

Many of the targets got here from Celtic giving the ball away. Alistair Johnston conceded in his personal half and, an prompt later, Guirassy was turning Scales inside out to slip the sixth objective previous Schmeichel at his right-hand submit.

A hideous introduction to this stage for Trusty then noticed the American go the ball straight to Felix Nmecha with 11 minutes to play, the substitute smashing the ball past Schmeichel for 7-1.

There wasn’t a lot solace for Celtic past the blunt information that the scoreline might have been a lot worse. On a day when the youth workforce misplaced 4-0 to the identical opponents, an mixture scoreline of 11-1 informed an previous, more and more acquainted story.

Defiant to the final, Celtic supporters cheered their workforce to the rafters at time up. The one means the spectacle might solely have been extra misplaced was in the event that they’d belted out a refrain of doh-a-deer.