In his 50th European game in charge of Celtic , Brendan Rodgers took his team to face Borussia Dortmund’s famous Yellow Wall. Again though, his side ran into their own personal brick wall when it comes to such away assignments at this level, and in humiliating fashion . Rarely in any of those matches before Rodgers brought up his half century in continental competition, particularly one where his side were without the home comforts of Celtic Park, has he led his team into a fixture with such confidence surrounding their prospects.
Even allowing for the small matter of facing last season’s Champions League finalists, and Rodgers’ previous record of winning just once away from Glasgow in this competition as manager of the club, there was genuine belief among the 4000 supporters that travelled to the west of Germany that this could be an evening to live long in the memory. It was, in the end, but for all the wrong reasons. The fact that Celtic fans were so ebullient about their side’s chances is a reflection on their form and on the strength of their squad.
This was the acid test of his team, though, Rodgers had said before the match, and he was hell-bent on seeing how his team measured up on their own terms. In the end, they failed to do so, and in wearily familiar, painful fashion. The bullishness about their chances of pulling off a famous win turned out to be as misplaced as any one of their numerous kamikaze inside passes that Dortmund – and the unplayable Karim A.