For long enough, Celtic’s defensive record on the road in the Champions League has made the prospect of picking up points feel about as likely as winning the lottery without first buying a ticket.
Brendan Rodgers’ men conceded 10 times in three away games in their group last year, one more than they shipped on the road under Ange Postecoglou the previous season.
Each time you venture into these highly intimidating arenas, you’ve got a mountain to climb. Give your opponent three goals of a start and you’re starting the ascent with your laces tied together and a blindfold on.
This, though, was a different level of ineptitude. A truly hideous night when Rodgers’ claim to have arrived in this competition as the ‘most ready’ he’d ever felt seemed wildly off the mark.
With the midfield playing like rabbits caught in the headlights and the front line failing to make inroads, the visiting defence was relentlessly exposed to wave after wave of attacks.
It was the most sobering of nights for the Scots, one that few, truthfully, saw coming. There was absolutely no shame in losing to last season’s Champions League finalists. But Rodgers’ side were simply torn apart, a promising start giving way to a capitulation that felt like the re-run of an old horror movie.
With the visitors unable to get a grip of the contest, save the two minutes that came after Daizen Maeda equalised, Kasper Schmeichel’s goal was hit more times than a dartboard.
The Germans scored five in a devastating first-half attacking display and, bluntly, they could have had any number. It brought back painful memories of Rodgers’ first spell in charge when his side capitulated in Barcelona and Paris.
But after all the early promise of this season, which coincided with the club twice breaking its own transfer record and winning nine straight matches, this somehow felt worse.
Before a ball was kicked, the fact the home side had lost seven goals in two games pointed towards a defensive vulnerability.
Yet the sting in the tail was that Nuri Sahin’s side had hit 16 in seven matches prior to this affair. And it was certainly Celtic’s misfortune that all of their attacking players produced supreme performances.
As ragged and error-strewn as Celtic were, the Germans were magnificent here, their touch and game intelligence just on a different level to anything the visitors could offer.
From the outset, they showed that they could come at you from all angles. Julian Brandt supported the brilliant Guinean striker Serhou Guirassy. Out wide, they had Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, once of Manchester City, and German international Karim Adeyemi.
They continually changed positions and exploited space that Celtic’s defenders simply weren’t aware of. Keeping them at bay was like trying to nail jelly to a wall.
Brandt ran the show. Quite why Celtic gave the playmaker room to do as he pleased, though, only they could explain.
Amid the chaos and the flood of goals, you had to feel a degree of sympathy for Auston Trusty.Selected to fill the boots of Cameron Carter-Vickers, the £6million man clearly enjoyed Rodgers’ faith, but this was to prove the most troubling evening imaginable for the American international. He was hardly alone in this.
Rodgers’ players were unfortunate as the ball broke off Callum McGregor seven minutes in. Schmeichel cleaned out Bynoe-Gittens and Emre Can converted from the spot.
The one moment of joy for the 4,000 visiting fans arrived two minutes later when Maeda bundled home Arne Engels’ cross. That joy, though, was shortlived.
Within two minutes, the Yellow Wall roared again when Adeyemi’s shot flew past Schmeichel with the help of a deflection off Trusty. A rocket from the same player just before the half hour put the game beyond the visitors.
A two-goal deficit at the break would have been decisive. The concession of two more meant the opening period bordered on humiliation. Repeatedly caught on the ball, unable to engage their direct opponents, Celtic were architects of their own downfall. Time and time again, the Germans cut them wide open.
After the optimism that had come from the handsome opening-night win over Slovan Bratislava, this was a reminder of the levels that exist at the elite end of European football.
Engels just couldn’t get going. The £11m signing’s night was capped when he caught Adeyemi inside the box. Guirassy converted Dortmund’s second penalty of the night.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, Maeda’s weak pass allowed Adeyemi to claim a hat-trick. Celtic re-emerged for the second period already deep into damage limitation territory.
They were dealt another blow when Guirassy slammed home the sixth after bearing down on goal all too easily with Felix Nmecha rattling home number seven after the visitors had played their way into trouble. It summed up Celtic’s pitiful resistance.
