Johnston: Celtic can bounce back from ‘humbling experience’ in Dortmund

Celtic full back Alistair Johnston promised there would be no post-Dortmund “wobble” following their humiliating Champions League

defeat.

The Scottish champions were defeated 7-1 by last season’s finalists at Signal Iduna Park, with the hosts scoring five goals in the first half

thanks to a combination of too much openness, careless play, and outstanding finishing. Johnston agreed Celtic contributed to their own

demise by turning over the ball too easily and suggested they might be more compact. And he feels there is room for rapid growth if they

use their rough night as a learning experience.

Celtic had won their previous 17 games, including a 5-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava in their Champions League opener, and Johnston is

optimistic they can recover from their poor performance in Germany. “We are not used to losing and that’s a pretty humbling experience,

but they were Champions League finalists last season,” the player from Canada told reporters. “We anticipated it would be a really difficult

game.

“We must learn from it; we will reflect and be honest with ourselves. it is what is so great about this group and the coaching staff; we are

honest, and we need to build on it. “We need to understand what we did wrong, how they penalized us, and what we did correctly.

“Unfortunately, there aren’t as many things we did well in this match, but there will be small changes we can make to be braver in our

positioning, more compact defensively, and so on. We will sort things out. We have a very confident group here. We will not let this shake

us. We just need to recognize that it can happen, but it won’t happen again.”

Celtic return to league action on Sunday against Ross County, looking to improve on their impressive start to the William Hill Premiership

season, which has seen them score 20 goals without reply in six triumphs. However, they will need to apply Dortmund’s lessons to their

next two European games. Brendan Rodgers’ team will face Europa League winners Atalanta in Bergamo on October 23 before hosting

another top-seeded German club, RB Leipzig.

Johnston stated: “We have a tremendously strong bunch here that is used to winning. Of course, the Champions League is a whole other

level, but we are confidence in our football. “Some of their finishes were spectacular, and that reflects the level. But we know we’re capable

of playing far better and recovering from that.”