Dortmund 7-1 Celtic: Adeyemi Shines; A Power Disparity

Last night, Borussia Dortmund crushed Celtic at home in their second group stage match of the Champions League with a stunning 7-1 victory.

At Westfalenstadion, Borussia Dortmund welcomed Celtic, a team in great form in the Scottish Premiership, with the mission to secure all three points. They accomplished this with a resounding 7-1 win, giving the visitors a nightmare match.

Best Player of the Match

Karim Adeyemi was named the Man of the Match by statistical platforms Whoscored and Sofascore, earning a perfect score of 10/10. The 22-year-old forward scored a first-half hat-trick before being substituted early in the second half due to injury.

The heat map showed that Adeyemi operated mainly on the right flank and in front of Celtic’s penalty area. According to Sofascore, the 2002-born striker had 39 touches, took five shots, completed two out of three dribbles, won four out of six duels, and made one tackle.

Worst Player of the Match

Karim Adeyemi was able to dominate the right-wing attack largely because he faced little resistance from Celtic’s left-back, Greg Taylor. Taylor was rated the lowest on both Whoscored and Sofascore, with a score of 5.4/10.

Struggling against the pace of Adeyemi, Greg Taylor lost possession 11 times and failed to make any crucial tackles. He only had 31 touches and completed 71% of his passes before being subbed off early in the second half.

Team Tactics

According to Whoscored, both Borussia Dortmund and Celtic aimed for an attacking style in last night’s game, with Dortmund employing a 4-2-3-1 formation and Celtic using a 4-3-3. However, with superior squad quality, BVB dominated and played extremely effectively.

Post-match stats show that Nuri Sahin’s team had 53% possession and took a total of 16 shots, 13 of which were on target. Notably, Dortmund’s attacks were well-distributed, with 34% down the left, 33% down the right, and 34% through the center.

Celtic played decently, holding 47% possession and managing nine shots, but only two of them were on target. Their over-reliance on the wings made it easier for Dortmund to neutralize their attacks. Hopefully, this heavy defeat won’t cause Celtic to give up too early in the Champions League.

Notable Points

Before this match, Borussia Dortmund captain Emre Can warned his teammates about the threat from Celtic, particularly the trio of Japanese stars. Indeed, Celtic had been dominant in the Scottish Premiership with six straight wins, scoring 20 goals and conceding none.

Celtic’s attacking strength lies in Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda, and Kyogo Furuhashi, who have contributed seven goals and four assists in the Scottish Premiership. However, against Dortmund last night, both Maeda and Furuhashi underperformed, earning ratings of 5.8 and 6.3 from Whoscored, while Hatate came off the bench.

Clearly, while Celtic dominates in Scotland, they still have a long way to go to compete with Europe’s top teams on the Champions League stage.