Kasper Schmeichel hasn't been troubled in the Scottish Premiership for Celtic so far this season.
In his short Celtic career, the Danish shot-stopper has equalled a 118-year-old shut-out record by keeping six clean sheets on the bounce in the domestic league in Scotland. However, there are levels to this football game, though. Big levels, especially in the European arena.
Brendan Rodgers' Celtic found that out to their cost in the Signal Iduna Park Stadium as they tried to mix it and go toe-to-toe with last season's beaten Champions League finalists.
The visitors were up against it as early as the seventh minute when Schmeichel upended Jamie Gittens in the box and Spanish referee Jose Maria Sanchez awarded a penalty and a yellow card to the ex-Falkirk and Leicester goalkeeper. Schmeichel was helpless to prevent Emre Can from firing home the opener, Karim Adeyemi bagging a first-half hat-trick, Serhou Guirassy notching a brace and Felix Nmecha completing the rout on a night of misery.
However, Schmeichel believes that the 7-1 Champions League mauling can be used as a reference point for the rest of the campaign. The No.1 is keen to move on quickly and get the defeat out of his system and he will use all his experience in the game to turn the crushing loss into something positive for the team. Schmeichel reckons that something good might come of it in the future.
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He said: "It’s a case of moving on very fast. The most important thing from a night like that is to learn from it. It can even be a good thing if you do. It’s something to refer to now – remember that night. Remember what happened, because if we are not 100 percent on it for every single minute, that’s what can happen.
“I’m hoping we can turn it into a positive. That’s our responsibility as the leadership group."
Schmeichel revealed he is not one to get too high or too low whatever football throws at him. He has a personal 'midnight rule' which he strictly abides by. Whether it is winning the English Premiership title and FA Cup with Leicester City, breaking century-old shut-out records with Celtic, or suffering Champions League hammerings, it's all the same to Schmeichel. It was all forgotten about by midnight but he admits that Celtic need to learn after being handed another lesson on their travels in Europe.
Now Schmeichel's focus is solely on Ross County in Dingwall on Sunday Schmeichel said: "That’s life, that’s football. This game has an incredible way of bringing you back down to earth sometimes.
“We also have to remember the big picture. We have had a good start to the season. This is a lesson we have to learn from. Football is an industry where you can have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows but you have to move on very quickly. Dortmund are a good team. We caught them on their best day but they caught us on our worst day. They had one of those nights where everything worked for them. We have had plenty of days like that ourselves this season already.
“That’s football sometimes. The most important thing is now we take our medicine. It’s all well and good when you take the praise like we have been doing this season. We also have to take it on the chin if we get a result like this. For me now, the big thing is the response. How do we respond now? It’s all well and good having a good start to the season, but now we have to feel this one because it hurts, but then move on to Sunday.
"Throughout my career, I’ve always had a rule where I allow myself to feel how I feel until midnight. That’s whether it’s joy from winning or devastation from losing but after midnight we move on.
“Now it’s all about Ross County."
For the moment, Bergamo and last season's Europa League winners and Atalanta can wait. One thing is for certain, Rodgers isn't going to be any more pragmatic when Celtic touches down in Italy in three weeks. The wily, old Schmeichel refused to be drawn into any kind of debate about whether or not the Celtic manager should deploy a different tactical approach next time out in the Champions League or if the gulf in class between the Scottish Premiership and elite-level European club football is too big a gap to bridge.
What Schmeichel does know is that this one result won't define Celtic's season. Schmeichel said: “There’s always a debate. That approach has been very successful for us this season. Sometimes you just come up against an opposition where everything goes their way.
"It was one of those results that can happen now and then. They happen. I’ve been lucky enough to be at the other end of some of them as well. Sometimes it’s like everything the opposition hits goes in. They get the luck or the rub of the green to get a result like that. It’s not one of those results that’s indicative of us as a team. We’ve had a very good start to the season and have to remember that. We just have to take it on the chin now. It’s not who we are or what we have been.
"You need to take the rough with the smooth when this happens. as we’ve been on the other side a lot this season."
The objective for Schmeichel and Celtic remains the same. The men in green and white will qualify for the knockout phase if they finish in the top 24. With two down and six games of the Champions League league phase to go, Schmeichel won't be rushing to make any snap judgements. Despite what he labelled a 'freak result' in Dortmund the Dane still has faith in the process. He said: “I always say, nothing in football is easy. If it was easy then everyone would do it. You have to earn absolutely everything in this game. No one is going to give you anything.
“The other night we had the kind of result that we have dished out a few times already this season. It was a tough night but it’s been fantastic since I joined the club. The other night was an isolated incident, the kind of freak result that can happen now and again, but it’s not indicative of this season.
“Remember, this is the first time we’ve lost this season. It won’t damage the belief. We are two games into an eight-game campaign in the Champions League – there is a long way to go.”
Schmeichel didn't go looking for trouble in Germany, it just arrived in his six-yard box. Rodgers' men tried to step into the Bundesliga side's face and it backfired spectacularly. On a torrid Tuesday night in the Champions League in Dortmund, Celtic and Schmeichel had come to the wrong place.
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