According to Brendan Rodgers, it’s the “acid test.”
To use boxing terminology, we’ve had an undercard consisting of several mismatches that Celtic has mercilessly won over the course of weeks.
Rodgers’ team is accustomed to playing in Scotland. On Tuesday, very little about Dortmund is anticipated to be comfortable.
Although things are relative, Dortmund isn’t doing well right now. Their lowest Bundesliga finish since 2015 came in fifth place, and they were only able to qualify for the Champions League when Germany was awarded an extra spot.
They qualified for the Champions League final, of course, but they were lucky to go that far. Paris St-Germain struck the woodwork five times in two legs of their semifinal match.
And the group that opened the championship matchup with Real Madrid? Niclas Fullkrug, Jadon Sancho, and Mats Hummels have all gone on. Sebastian Haller and Marco Reus also saw game action, but they are not currently in the lineup.
They recently lost 5-1 to Stuttgart five days prior and gave up two goals in a 4-2 victory over one of the league’s weakest teams, Bochum.
They may be incredibly careless and uneasy in defense, as one Dortmund observer noted on Monday, but they are still Dortmund.
