Celtic match embarrassing numbers set by Cwmbran Town on dire Dortmund night and two things must change

Brendan Rodgers admits his Celtic team got the jitters against Borussia Dortmund - as they matched a Welsh team on the thumping scale.

The Premiership champions were hammered 7-1 by the Bundesliga club on Tuesday night in a crash back to earth after a strong start to this season. They were 5-1 down by half-time, with Celtic the maiden British team to concede five in a first half of a major European competition game since Cwmbran Town vs. Progresul Bucharest in the 1997-98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Rodgers admitted Celtic made for rough viewing and named two things that must happen in their next matches, being tighter and more compact. He said: “It was a tough watch, to be honest. We weren’t at our best and they showed why they are a top team.

“We didn’t make the start we wanted. I just said to the players afterwards that I don’t think I’ve been involved in a game where every single mistake we made got punished. That’s the level, any misplaced pass or moment they had seemed to end up in the back of the net.

“You need to be at your highest level. We weren’t that and they were. You can see the quality that they have. We might have got spooked a little bit early on. We get the equaliser, but very quickly, we’re 2-1 behind, and we start to chase it a little bit. It was a mixture of our positioning and the quality of our passing. We just didn’t play a good game technically, out there.”

“I don’t think we were going toe-to-toe with them. I think there were moments whenever we can press the game, from a static position we’re there to press it. When you’re in the mid-pitch, I just felt we needed to be tighter. At times our positioning was a little bit too open. You’ve just got to really tighten the game or they play through you and that’s what they did.

“Once they’re in and turned, then that speed and power they have. You see where that takes them. We needed to be tighter and more compact in certain moments.”