Celtic handed Champions League hammering by Borussia Dortmund
In a thrilling start to their fifth European H2H clash, Die Borussen surged to a 2-1 lead within 11 action-packed minutes against a Celtic side winless away from home in UCL since 2017.
The drama began when Kasper Schmeichel saw yellow for bringing down Jamie Bynoe-Gittens in the box, as Emre Can calmly converted the subsequent penalty into the middle of the net.
Celtic responded almost instantly as a lapse in concentration from the goalscorer let Daizen Maeda sneak in for a close-range equaliser. But Dortmund swiftly regained control, with Karim Adeyemi’s deflected strike nestling into the left corner, igniting roars from the Yellow Wall.
Back in cruise control, Nuri Şahin’s men went on to all but kill the game before half-time, with Adeyemi stealing the spotlight.
The German earned his brace with an edge-of-the-area shot that Schmeichel struggled to punch away as it landed in the top corner, before the evening only got worse for the Bhoys.
Yet another penalty was conceded by Celtic, this time for a poor Arne Engels challenge on Adeyemi, allowing Serhou Guirassy to step up and smash the set-piece into the left corner.
The ex-Red Bull Salzburg forward then capped off a brilliant hat-trick with a fantastic low drive from outside the area to make it 5-1.
Adeyemi’s first-half heroics had set the stage for a fairytale evening, but just minutes into the second period, the script took a cruel twist as the marksman pulled up with a muscle injury.
His departure made little difference though, as Brendan Rodger’s sleeping defence shipped a sixth goal in the 66th minute. Picking up Nico Schlotterbeck’s pass, Guirassy netted his fifth strike in four games with a well-taken finish after wrongfooting a defender at the near post.
As hard as the Hoops tried to reduce the gap, it only worsened. Moments after striking the woodwork, Celtic saw Felix Nmecha’s effort from inside the box lodge into the bottom-left corner 11 minutes from full-time, capping off the visitors’ joint-second heaviest UCL loss and inflicting their first competitive defeat in 16 games.
Nuri Şahin’s Dortmund extend their unbeaten UCL home streak to 12 games with the magnificent victory, having now won their last five competitive home matches by a 2+ goal margin.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Karim Adeyemi (Borussia Dortmund)
