Bruised Brendan Rodgers reckons his Celtic players were “spooked” by an early Borussia battering as he watched his side suffer a Dortmund demolition in the Champions League.
But despite being his Hoops hammered 7-1 on matchday two the Irishman insists he will never park the bus against the continental big guns. Rodgers, who has suffered thumping against PSG, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, in his two spells as Celtic boss, admitted they have to learn from the heavy defeats but won’t “camp in” as he looks to transform their domestic dominance into Europe.
Celtic fell behind after just seven minutes through Emre Can’s spot kick but Daizen Maeda gave the visitors hope against the Bundesliga giants with a quickfire leveller. But the roof caved in at the Westfalen Stadium as Karim Adeyemi hit a hat-trick, Serhou Guirassy netted a double, one also from the spot, and Felix Nmecha completed the rout.
Rodgers admitted that whirlwind start did them damage. He said: “We’re really disappointed with the result and performance-wise I don’t think I’ve been involved in a game where virtually every mistake we got was punished and that’s the highest level of modern football.
“We could have been better with the ball but going down 3-1 and 4-1 early seemed to spook us a little bit and we didn’t play with the same confidence and they were playing at a high level.
“The guys shows great spirit in the second half and we had more possession of the ball and took greater risk but ultimately we were beaten by a much better team. We will assess it and look back afterwards. We wanted to press the game but we wanted to be balanced and be tight and compact but too many times when we ran out of position top players punished us. We’ll look at that for the coming games.
“We got punished for giving the ball away. We needed longer spells with the game. We were too rushed. We know we have pace but we had to have the ball for longer periods and we looked for that killer pass too early in their half and you are constantly giving the ball away and chasing it and their frontline is so far, direct and they have real quality and punished us.
“The big defeats have come against Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG… we always have to adapt but sometimes the quality breaks through that. Are we going to sit in and camp and wait? No, we won’t do that. We play a way that allows us to dominate domestically. We know it will be difficult to do that at times but we still have to show our ability with the ball and we were nowhere near that level. We gave it away too easily. We concede two penalties, from a corner they scored an unbelievable goal. That can affect your confidence but I was proud of the players second half. We’re disappointed and it’s the first time we’ve had that feeling for a long time and we have to learn from it.”
Skipper Callum McGregor added: “It was a sore one for sure. We were punished for every mistake we made which doesn’t happen often in football. It was a sobering night. Credit to Dortmund who showed really good quality but we have to stick together.
“We have had a good start to the season but we’ve been sobered a little bit and we have to take that and keep the group together and bounce back in the next game.
“We got ourselves back into the game but the quick goal killed us and rattled us a bit. We started to go alone and trying to win the ball back, coming out of our shape and good players will kill you.
“The gameplan was to be in-between the two – moments of pressure and you know there are periods you will suffer against good players. But we became a bit more individual and looked open because you’re too busy focusing on your own man and we have to learn from that. Credit to Dortmund and we have a lot to think about after that.
“You’re playing against good players with good ideas. The second goal rattled us, the stadium gets going and you’re in a spin a little bit. We have to learn from that. We’re normally good at executing the gameplan but we have to hold our hands up. We didn’t do well enough but we have to stick together. We are where thought we would be after two games, if we’re being realistic, so we take that and move on.”
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