On The Road in Dortmund: Before the match the Celtic fans sang: ‘This is the day we win…’ SPOILER: This was NOT that day

The surreal and the all too real came together over three days in Dortmund. It may be best to focus on the former first, because reality can bite. And it happened with some brutality in the Westfalen Stadium.

But primarily, the pre-torn scenes were of ostentatious anticipation, inventive organization, and premature celebration. During such a journey there is a constant question: how did we get here?

This is not the existential question favored by philosophers, but the game fans indulge in when they gather in the square of their choice. It is almost always amusing, sometimes educational, when supporters relate their journey to a European match.

In bar Thiers, on the market square, a boy of about eight led the chorus of ‘This is the Day When We Win Away’ on Monday. Spoiler: this wasn’t the day. Beneath the songs, however, was a persistent murmur about where the supporters came from and where they wanted to take the club.

Michael, on his first away football trip since the death of his wife of 49 years, had driven from Dundee to Hull, caught the ferry and then driven the 200 miles to Dortmund.

The Celtic supporters had enjoyed the build-up to the match and some were cautiously optimistic

The atmosphere in Dortmund was electric, with both groups of fans putting on a show

His journey would involve a return journey of 1,000 miles. He was optimistic about it all. As a retired businessman, he had no outlandish hopes for what might happen on the playing field.

Sitting next to him were those who had traveled Belfast-Stansted-Dortmund, curiously one of the easier routes.

One of my traveling companions – for us it was planes, trains and cars – was alerted to a ping on his phone on Tuesday afternoon. It belonged to a member of the Paul McStay No.1 Supporters bus from St Ninians, Stirling.

They had left home by bus on Monday evening. Just a few hours before kick-off, the intrepid traveler reported: “We are somewhere in Belgium at the end of noon.”

The municipality in Dortmund obviously had no idea of ​​the approaching storm. The surreality of fans placing pins on statues, harassing bar owners forcing immediate calls for reinforcements in the form of beer kegs, and blandly besieging kebab shops was generally accompanied by a down-to-earth reality, at least in terms of match predictions.

Many of these fans had been here before. The veterans of such journeys calmly but firmly pointed out that Celtic optimism on such evenings tended to evaporate upon first contact with that nasty substance known as fitba’ reality.

“I think we lose 3-1,” Michael said. Those who proclaimed that Brendan Rodgers would lead the side to a famous victory were greeted with muted disbelief and the forbearance of those scarred by experience.

Pearce, an Irishman who has booked all the outings in this campaign, looked around the busy, bouncing bar and noticed. ‘This is how it should be. It’s one of the joys of being a fan that you’re allowed to believe even when part of you tells you it’s probably just stupid to do so.”

The fan army had been mobilized. The capitulation of the Westphalia would take several more hours.

Football shares a common history. It can be viewed clearly during a visit to the impressive Football Museum in Dortmund. It’s wonderfully interactive, owes a lot to hi-tech, but it also appeals to those of us who remember when a far-flung football expedition once involved a trip to Gayfield from Glasgow. The football fan has become an international phenomenon because he or she now almost routinely travels to a foreign match.

Brendan Rodgers’ game plan was exposed as Dortmund took a 5-1 lead at half-time

The statue of a miner in the center of one of the museum floors is a reminder of what once sustained the game that is now a global business and generates significant revenue.

The image is entitled Fifteen Minutes, a reference to the only break a miner in the Ruhr area can expect in a working day. It reminded me of the observation that Bill Shankly, Jock Stein and Matt Busby – a triumvirate that exemplifies the game’s greatest managers – all had a mining background.

The exhibition also included a fleeting reference to Scottish tactics, a nod to the Scottish professors of the late 19th century. Celtic supporters also searched the wall in the Hall of Fame for the names of players from their club who had played for the national team.

There was some excitement when the names of Andreas Hinkel and Andreas Thom were spotted on the wall. There was some disbelief when an eagle-eyed fan spotted the legend: Marvin Compper (one cap in a friendly against England, if you ask).

Most strikingly, however, the distance between the match in Scotland and Germany was measured. This is best, and brutally, measured during World Cup performances.

The introductory film charted German success from the Miracle in Bern in 1954 to the present. Four World Cup wins and a pair of final losses put into perspective our as yet unanswered dream of progressing from the group stage if we qualify.

The part about the European Cup and its wayward, money-obsessed son, the Champions League, caused Caledonian and Celtic cheers.

Paul Lambert’s extraordinary performance in Munich in 1997, when Dortmund defeated Juventus, is emblematic. It was a pre-match reminder that BvB had one leveling factor against Celtic. Every club had won Europe’s most important trophy at some point.

“That was clearly my best day as a Dortmund player,” Lambert told me before the match. ‘My proudest day as a Celtic player was scoring when we beat Rangers in the Ne-erday match in 1998. That was the day we believed we could stop the 10. The pressure on us that season was enormous, so that always has a special place. in my heart.

‘Westphalia? I had so many wonderful moments there. I believe this is the best stadium in Europe. There are over 80,000 of them and they are on top of you. The fans seem to win you over.’

It finished 7-1 that night and the Celtic players looked shocked at the end

Dortmund did not rely on outside encouragement. The match ended with almost unseemly haste.

The home fans, at least before the match, seemed more concerned with the direction of travel in the Champions League, calling UEFA the ‘mafia’ who were only after money.

It was yet another sign of how German fans – and those in Westphalia in particular – dislike the commercial imperatives that now drive the game.

Michelus Gerghaut and Julius Dejtrowski – both 20-year-old students – explained what football means in this part of Germany. “It’s about community, it’s about togetherness,” Gerghaut said.

Both were season ticket holders at Essen, now in the 3rd League of the Bundesliga but still attracting 18,000 spectators. “We are also season ticket holders here,” Dejtrowski said. ‘But Essen has a special place as a club in our home city.’

Rot-Weiss Essen was once a leading team in Germany. They qualified for the first European Cup in 1955. But times are changing. Bayern Munich, a team that didn’t even participate in the first Bundesliga season in 1963, now tends to rule Germany, although Bayer Leverkusen has recently threatened hegemony and Dortmund has been irritating over the years.

But the grim reality of modern football was laid bare in Westphalia. Dortmund, last season’s Champions League finalists, sprinted away from Celtic. Their victory was made possible by the almost wide-eyed innocence of the visitors’ tactical approach.

A 7-1 scoreline may seem absurd, but it was far from surreal. Every sober analysis pointed to the inevitability of the outcome given the approach taken by both parties.

The BVB supporters gloried in the victory. The Celtic fans remained heroically defiant. There was disgusted muttering as someone listened to conversations on the way back to the city center.

But in Westphalia they seemed determined to sing their way out of despair. To the tune of Bella Ciao they sang: ‘Glasgow Celtic, the best in Scotland.’

This is also true. But it is not enough when reality bares its teeth and bites on strange fields.