'Dortmund hammering might be the best thing to have happened'
Hear me out, but Celtic’s 7-1 hammering at the hands of Borussia Dortmund just over a month ago might just be the best thing to have happened in terms of our chances of progressing in this season's Champions League.
Think of it this way - had we lost by the odd goal or two in Germany, would the backlash have been anywhere near as intense as it was? Would the players have felt the sting had the result only been 2-0, for example?
And crucially, would Brendan Rodgers have made the changes he went on to make for the subsequent draw with Atalanta, had he not experienced that punishing defeat from Nuri Sahin's side?
I'd argue that a firm 'no' is the answer to all of the above.
Make no mistake, despite only collecting one point on the night, that draw with a seriously talented Atalanta has breathed new life into this campaign.
In the aftermath of the Dortmund result, Rodgers maintained that he was an attacking coach - always had been and always will be - and that he wouldn't bend on those principles.
Despite calls to park the bus, he would go on to name a side in the same 4-3-3 formation that he's always played since returning to Glasgow.
He did however make some notable tweaks.
In came Alex Valle and Reo Hatate for Greg Taylor and Paolo Bernardo, and, perhaps most significantly, Adam Idah was preferred to Kyogo Furuhashi up top.
The key on the night, however, was discipline.
Gone was the high press which led to Dortmund finding so much space on matchday three; in came a more streetwise and controlled aggression from the start.
Yes, we rode our luck at times, but there was no doubt that the lessons of Dortmund had been learned and, more importantly, that they were applied in Bergamo.
At Celtic Park on Tuesday, Rodgers and this talented group have the chance to take their next steps forward as a team and show that they continue to learn in the cut-throat environment of the Champions League.
If they do so then maybe, just maybe, they could take a massive leap closer towards qualifying for the knockout stages.
