After such a brilliant opening to their Champions League campaign a fortnight ago, things turned ugly for Celtic against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night.
The Hoops travelled to face last year's finalists off the high of a 5-1 opening night win against Slovan Bratislava and hoped to take a famous away result against the German giants.
Pre-match, Peter Schmeichel spoke to Brendan Rodgers pitchside at the Westfalenstadion. This summer saw Rodgers reunited with Schmeichel's son Kasper, who previously played under Rodgers at Leicester City.
During their pre-match chat, Peter Schmeichel thanked Rodgers for signing Kasper and for playing him in Tuesday's game against Dortmund. The Manchester United legend joked that he had had to beg his producers to send him to Germany, so he would have been gutted had his son not been playing.
"Thank you for playing [Kasper Schmeichel] today!" 😅@Pschmeichel1 catches up with Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers ahead of their #UCL tie against Dortmund 👇 pic.twitter.com/gQzup7XevW
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 1, 2024
Though Rodgers assured Schmeichel that Kasper was always going to be in his starting lineup, Peter may soon have wished that he hadn't been.
The opening stages were frantic, with three goals inside the opening 11 minutes. When Daizen Maeda immediately levelled things up after Emre Can's penalty opener for the hosts, Celtic fans would have been forgiven for holding out hope for a brave result.
It would, unfortunately, turn into a massacre.
Dortmund were 5-1 up by half-time and, by full-time, the scoreline read an ugly 7-1.
This is shambolic from Celtic.pic.twitter.com/ba5FxqlDBc
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) October 1, 2024
It was a sobering night for Celtic fans that brought their Champions League dreams crashing back down to Earth.
Post-match, Peter Schmeichel's mood about Kasper had completely changed, with the goalkeeping legend speaking to the CBS Sports panel about what he had said to his son at full-time.
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Celtic FC: Peter Schmeichel frank on son Kasper's disappointment
Peter Schmeichel may have regretted being so adamant about attending Celtic's away day against Dortmund as the scoreline turned ugly for the Scottish champions.
It was a personal night to forget for his son Kasper, who put in a poor showing after having an encouraging start to life in Glasgow. The 37-year-old gave away the penalty for Dortmund's opener and conceded seven goals from just 2.64 xG on a tough evening in Dortmund.
Father Peter was frank in his assessment of the game post-match.
"I spoke to Kasper [Schmeichel] as he came out and I said, 'Be one of the leaders in the dressing room and help everyone recover from this."@Pschmeichel1 reveals the advice he gave to his son after Celtic's heavy defeat in Dortmund ❤️ pic.twitter.com/aKQAVCOQXo
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) October 1, 2024
Schmeichel was asked by his fellow CBS pundit Jamie Carragher how a parent can be expected to deal with watching their child have a night such as Celtic's German nightmare.
The Dane simply said that he had tried to put a supportive arm around his son and push him to be an encouraging force in the Celtic dressing room.
It really is difficult. You always want the best for your children, no matter what situation they find themselves in.
This was one of those days you can never, ever explain. There were so many shots at goal...it could have been a little bit more. It was just as Callum McGregor said to me earlier on, it's just one of those days they couldn't get close enough to close that down.
I spoke to Kasper as he came out of the game here, that dressing room just there. I said, 'This was a bad, bad day at the office. Take it for nothing more. Move on, be one of the leaders in the dressing room, help everybody else recover from this.'
Up until this point, don't forget Celtic have played really, really good football. There is so much optimism at the club. This is something...obviously they need to go through what happened but this was just a really bad day at the office.
A "bad day at the office" might be underselling it, but all Celtic can do from here is look ahead to their next game.
They still have six games to go in the Champions League league phase, with their next assignment against Europa League champions Atalanta in three weeks.
