Celtic, Dortmund prove CL Swiss Model is f***ed as hopeless Hoops emphatically fail ‘acid test’

Celtic emphatically failed their “acid test” against Borussia Dortmund as the two sides demonstrated why the new Champions League format is a shambles…

This once-great site’s usual tactic when covering a night of Champions League group-stage action involving two English teams is that two writers take a team apiece to cover.

While Steady gleefully claimed Arsenal vs Paris Saint-Germain, I could not think of anything worse than thinking of something to write about Manchester City’s procession at Slovan Bratislava.

Celtic‘s trip to Signal Iduna Park to face Borussia Dortmund stood out as the obvious alternative and it took the two sides no time to justify this decision.

In the previous era of the Champions League, Celtic were often cannon fodder for fellow European giants, who were far more accustomed to coping with the rigours of the elite club competition.

UEFA’s decision to reform the Champions League using the Swiss Model – which has unsurprisingly proved to be a colossal waste of time amid an alarming lack of jeopardy in the opening matches – seemingly provided Celtic with a much-needed opportunity to start afresh in the competition.

Upon returning to Celtic, former Liverpool and Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers was not without his critics, but he oversaw a superb end to the 2023/24 campaign as eventual runners-up Rangers were cut adrift in the Scottish Premiership title race.

Celtic kicked on at the start of this campaign as they effortlessly breezed past inferior opponents to extend their winning run to 17 matches across all competitions.

Unlike previous years, Celtic’s immense domestic form translated over into the Champions League as last month’s 5-1 demolition of Slovan Bratislava got supporters foolishly dreaming of their side becoming a force to be reckoned with in a competition which has often served up so much heartache.

But bigger challenges were around the corner and their first – as Rodgers called it – “acid test” in the Champions League came away at Dortmund on Tuesday night.

So, were Celtic up to the task? Hmm… Let’s go with a firm no.

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Rodgers exuded confidence during his pre-match press conference, saying: “The way we have been performing over the last six or seven months has just been increasing and now we come to this level.”

But it took very little time for 36-year-old Dortmund boss Nuri Sahin – who was signed by Rodgers at Liverpool – to make his former boss look pretty stupid as the hosts opened up Celtic at will.

This Dortmund side is much-changed from the team that upset the odds to reach last season’s Champions League final. With former manager Edin Terzic joining Jadon Sancho, Mats Hummels, Marco Reus and Niclas Fullkrug in leaving in the summer, the Bundesliga outfit have entered a new era and Sahin – who is making us all feel old – has had teething issues at the start of his managerial journey.

Sahin has continued the heavy-metal Dortmund tradition of being exhilarating to watch in an attacking sense, but they have been left wanting defensively and have conceded nearly as many as they’ve scored in the Bundesliga.

While Dortmund – by far – still presented Celtic’s toughest opponent of the season so far, the task of beating them certainly wasn’t insurmountable for Celtic.

Were Celtic to take a point or three home to Glasgow, they would have had to ride out the storm at times while picking their moments to pile players forward on the counter-attack to punish an expectedly frail defence.

But the Hoops were immediately put on the back foot by Dortmund and were given a dose of their own medicine by the hosts, who sprinted into an unassailable lead.

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A penalty from captain Emre Can – another former Liverpool player coming up against Rodgers – opened the scoring in the seventh minute before Daizen Maeda’s speedy equaliser afforded the visitors a fleeting feeling of euphoria.

Karim Adeyemi, Julian Brandt and Serhou Guirassy were constant thorns in the side of Celtic and Dortmund’s key trio surely couldn’t have believed their luck as they were given the freedom of the attacking half.

Their Scottish opponents were torn apart with worrying ease as Rodgers’ side did not come close to producing anything close to a resolute performance; they were only too willing to allow Dortmund to rack up seven goals.

Dortmund were as good as Celtic were f***ing dreadful as Rodgers’ side crashed back down to earth with an almighty bump.

Clearly, Celtic’s 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava didn’t offer an accurate reflection of where they are at in this season’s Champions League, but Dortmund opened their eyes to what is truly required to consistently reach the knockout stages of this competition at a minimum.

A defeat of this magnitude is always going to be demoralising. Celtic – as always – will be fine in the Scottish Premiership, but this disastrous defeat and performance could easily have a lasting impact, with their previous skyrocketing self-belief taking a huge hit at the hands of Dortmund.

Really, the current versions of Celtic and Dortmund are not in the same league and the fact that each could foreseeably find themselves in a play-off for the Champions League knockout stages proves what’s fundamentally wrong with the revamped tournament. Often less is more and an increased number of teams does not lead to an increased level of competition.