Dortmund send Celtic crashing back down to earth as Brendan’s 'next level' challenge suffers slap – 5 talking points

In football circles they call the Yellow Wall the eighth wonder of the world. Well, on Tuesday night there was a demolition job all right and it was Brendan Rodgers who was forced to wear the hard hat.

Celtic may be kings of Scotland but up against Champions League royalty of Borussia Dortmund, they were left mere serfs of Europe as Nuri Sahin’s superstars slapped Rodgers down just when he – and the whole Celtic support – was beginning to believe. 7-1 was the scoreline. Yeah, in truth it was Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain levels so ouch.

Last season’s Champions League finalists were supposed to be the opponents against which the Premiership champions could trade blow for blow. And for a while, they did just that. But then came the opening of the floodgates and suddenly Celtic were drowning.

Kasper Schmeichel pulled down Jamie Gittens just a couple of minutes in after he had rampaged through the Celtic backline. Callum McGregor got a touch but all he did was put it back in the path of Englishman Gittens. Penalty, no argument. Emre Can stepped up and belted the ball past Schmeichel for 1-0.

But then came the response. And less than two minutes later. Daizen Maeda took up the perfect position in the centre of the box and knocked the into the net from Arne Engels’ cross for 1-1.

Wow. Hold on there, though. Seconds later, Dortmund were back in front. Karim Adeyemi scored the third goal in the first 10 minutes, lashing the ball beyond Schmeichel from 18 yards after a long punt forward. Breathless stuff.

And Celtic fans were reaching for the oxygen tanks a short while later when the ball flashed across their six-yard box but Pascal Gross fluffed his lines. Julian Brandt was starting to dictate the play and he laid on a