How Rodgers used Dortmund defeat to get Celtic Champions League ready

Disappointed with a point away in the Champions League shows how much Celtic has improved this past year under Brendan Rodgers…

Nicolas Kuhn is challenged by Ronael Pierre-Gabriel during during the UEFA Champions League match between GNK Dinamo and Celtic at Stadion Maksimir on December 10, 2024. (Photo by Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images)

The disappointment of picking up only a point away from home in the Champions League against Dinamo Zagreb shows just how much we’ve improved on the European front this season.

A more mature Celtic

The team has matured and is now competitive at this level, if you can overlook that freakishly painful night in Dortmund that might actually have helped Celtic find our feet as a Champions League side.

Sure Dinamo Zagreb were there for the taking and it wasn’t as impressive as the point we gained in Bergamo against Europa League holders Atalanta, but it was still a point all the same, and it was also the type of game that Celtic would most likely have lost in years gone by.

Kyogo Furuhashi with the ball during the UEFA Champions League match between GNK Dinamo and Celtic FC at Stadion Maksimir on December 10, 2024. (Photo by Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images)

Side is still learning at this level

Brendan Rodgers knows that his side is still learning at this level, and it would have been a surprise to the players to see an away side at this level set up similarly to teams we face on a regular basis domestically.

Dinamo probably needed the three points more than Celtic given their tough two remaining fixtures against Arsenal away and Milan at home. The Croatian Champions might be better looking at bonusfinder.co.uk rather than looking at winning either of those matches.

Dinamo Zagreb feared losing to Celtic

Yet in the closing stages with the match goalless Dinamo Zagreb decide to stick rather than twist to protect their point rather than go all out for a winner that would have almost certainly have won them a place in the knockout rounds. Why did this happen? The only explanation is that the Dinamo Zagreb feared that it would be Celtic who scored the winning goal, not them.

Cameron Carter-Vickers is chased by Sandro Kulenovic during the UEFA Champions League match between GNK Dinamo and Celtic FC at Stadion Maksimir on December 10, 2024. (Photo by Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images)

This won’t happen that often, indeed I doubt it will happen again, but it’s another indicator of how far Celtic has grown this season that a side showed us such massive respect at this level.

Victims of our own success

We are victims of our own success in a way due to our impressive results against RB Leipzig and Atlanta, so that raises expectations, but it also shows how far we’ve come in a short space of time.

At the start of the campaign we all wanted to see improvement on the European stage, and sitting on nine points and one win away from a play off spot, we can all say that’s been achieved, don’t you agree?

Reo Hatate is challenged by Lukas Kacavenda of GNK Dinamo during the UEFA Champions League match between GNK Dinamo and Celtic FC at Stadion Maksimir on December 10, 2024. (Photo by Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images)

Celtic’s big chance is against Young Boys who are playing VfB Stuttgart this evening before their trip to Celtic Park on Wednesday 22 January 2025. That’s the night that Celtic should secure a place in the knockout rounds of the Champions League and with it a glamour tie which this Celtic team will be ready to compete in, fearing no-one.

Well, maybe Dortmund!

Just an Ordinary Bhoy