Dortmund cannot be seen through before the Celtic showdown

German football expert Derek Rae doesn’t know what to expect from Borussia Dortmund as they prepare to face Celtic.

Nuri Sahin’s side, currently fifth in the Bundesliga, recently suffered a shock 5-1 defeat against Stuttgart, who sit eighth in Germany’s top flight.

This result was between a 3-0 win over Club Brugge in the Champions League opener and a 4-2 win over VfL Bochum at the weekend.

“From the outside they are such a difficult team to understand,” Rae told the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast.

“Last season they reached the Champions League final but finished fifth in the Bundesliga.

“They’ve been pretty good this season. Obviously they got beaten by Stuttgart last week but on the whole they have won games.”

“Can we really turn up tonight with any certainty about what Dortmund will bring? Not really.”

“I think that’s what you have to say about Dortmund. If you look at the overall score, it’s respectable but nothing surprising.”

“The Stuttgart result is outstanding, as is the performance. It wasn’t good enough.”

“I would say at the moment they are the fourth or fifth best team here in Germany. You know, you have Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, you have RB Leipzig, who in my opinion are actually better than them, you have Stuttgart, which is maybe better,” Well, in a direct duel we were definitely better than she.”