Celtic fell to defeat for the first time in any competition this season as they were hammered 7-1 by Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Brendan Rodgers’ side went 1-0 down to a penalty from Emre Can but very quickly equalised through Daizen Maeda, from a sublime cross from Arne Engels.
After that, it was all Dortmund and the hosts found themselves 5-1 up by half-time, thanks to a hat-trick from Karim Adeyemi, before adding another two in the second half.
There were a number of poor performers on the pitch for Celtic and one player who will be disappointed with his display is the captain – Callum McGregor.
Callum McGregor's performance in numbers
The former Scotland international anchored the midfield for the Hoops and endured an incredibly difficult night as Dortmund cut through the middle of the pitch with ease.
He simply did not do enough to help out Liam Scales and Auston Trusty, who were left woefully exposed to the pace and quality of the German side’s impressive forward line.
McGregor completed 92% of his attempted passes, making 59 in total, and created one chance for his teammates. However, his work on the ball meant very little when Dortmund were allowed to do so much offensively.
The veteran midfielder was dribbled past as many times (two) as he completed tackles (two) and this shows that the opposition found it too easy to get the better of him in the middle of the park.
However, he was not the worst-performing midfielder on the pitch for Celtic. Paulo Bernardo was given a huge chance to impress ahead of Reo Hatate in the starting XI, but failed Rodgers’ big test.
Paulo Bernardo's struggles against Dortmund
The Portugal U21 international earned his place in the team with a goal and an assist from the start against St Johnstone on Saturday, which convinced the manager to select him over the Japan international.
Bernardo struggled badly against Dortmund, however, and was handed a player rating of 3/10 by the Daily Record, who wrote that he was ‘taught a lesson’ in midfield.
The former Benfica man was withdrawn from the action at half-time and could have no complaints after a dismal showing in the opening 45 minutes.
Minutes played
45
90
Passes completed
6
59
Duels won
3/6
5/7
Tackles
0
2
Interceptions
0
1
As you can see in the table above, Bernardo only completed six passes in 45 minutes and did not make a single tackle or interception in the middle of the park, as Dortmund scored five goals.
Whereas, McGregor at least managed to win the majority of his physical duels and did get on the ball to complete a decent number of passes on the night, even if his work out of possession was not good enough to prevent the home side from running riot.
The Portuguese ace’s inclusion from the start was a big test from Rodgers to see if he is ready to start big matches for Celtic over Hatate. Bernardo failed that test.