Dortmund daunting but defensive doubts offer Celtic hope

Just four months ago, London was hit by a swarm of yellow and black as Borussia Dortmund prepared to take part in their third Champions League final.

More than 60,000 made the trip to Wembley, but only 25,000 had tickets as Hyde Park was opened up to cater for the unlucky ones.

It was a memorable run for Germany’s “Die Schwarzgelben” as they swept aside PSV Eindhoven, Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint Germain en route, ultimately falling short against Real Madrid, losing 2-0.

They had their chances though and will look back and wonder what might have been.

It had been a relatively mundane league season, with a fifth-place finish – a distant 27 points behind unbeaten champions Bayer Leverkusen and 10 off runners-up Stuttgart – and, despite their appearance in European football’s grandest affair, coach Edin Terzic left his position just days later.

Former Dortmund and Turkey midfielder Nuri Sahin stepped up from his assistant’s role and the 36-year-old has a big job on his hands.

Sahin has credit in the bank. He was part of the side that won the Bundesliga title in 2011 and reached the Champions League final two years later under Jurgen Klopp.

Niklas Fullkrug, Marco Reus and Mats Hummels have departed and performances have been up and down.

A 5-1 pounding at Stuttgart has not helped, although they followed that with a 4-2 home win over Bochum as they warmed up to face Celtic on Tuesday, battling back from 2-0 down to save face.

Nine goals leaked in their last four games points to a vulnerability that was addressed by Sahin after Friday’s win.

“We defended very, very badly,” he said. “We have to develop in this area and defending in depth is always a huge topic. I hope that we improve as quickly as possible, because there’s no other way.”

That should offer Brendan Rodgers and his free-scoring players some optimism as Celtic look for a first win on German soil at the 15th attempt.