So consequential was Celtic’s bruising defeat at the hands of Borussia Dortmund that it inspired (along with Rangers’ thumping by Lyon two nights later, in fairness) days of navel gazing about the quality of the Scottish game, never mind just for Brendan Rodgers and his men themselves.
And until Celtic step back into the Champions League arena, with another testing trip ahead as they visit Bergamo to take on Europa League holders Atalanta, the many questions that have arisen since are unlikely to be definitively answered.
Was this, with Celtic so dominant on the domestic scene and yet so easily dismantled in Dortmund, a damning indictment on Scottish football? Was it simply the latest example of Rodgers’ pride setting Celtic up for a major fall on the European stage, unwilling as he seems to be to bend from his attacking game plan? Was it a blip?
For Nicolas Kuhn, who was perhaps the most desperate among the Celtic players to impress as he went back to his homeland last week, the latter of these descriptions is exactly what it was.
Kuhn has started the season in impressive form, underscoring his importance to his team in these early stages of the season with the late winner against Ross County in Dingwall on Sunday. Even he though failed to reach anything like the levels he has been producing of late in the Westfalen, but he hasn’t lost faith that on an individual and collective basis, this Celtic team can still show they belong at that level.
And he had a warning for the next German side that Celtic come against, RB Leipzig, that he and his teammates are hellbent on showing their true selves throughout the remainder of the league phase, after doing themselves such an injustice in Dortmund.
“That was not our real face,” Kuhn said.
“It was last year's finalist of the Champions League, and if you're not 100 per cent there, they're going to take advantage.
“We talked a lot about it, but now it's done, and we're just going to focus on the next games. The start, except for that game, has been unbelievable.
“For me personally, it was really difficult. I wanted to have a good game there, but that's how it is now. I talked with the gaffer about it, and he told me to just keep going, and that's what we did.
“We have another German team to play, and we will play at home, so we just have to do better. I think we showed it before [that we are better than that], in the first Champions League game. That night [in Dortmund] everything was against us, it didn't really work out. But we have a lot of games to go, and we want to do better.
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“That's what we're going to work on every week. For a lot of the guys, and for me, it was our second game in the Champions League. They're a good team, and if you make those mistakes they're going to punish you for it. That's what happened, but we have to bounce back from it and take a lesson.
“At the end it was three points. We conceded too many goals, that's clear, but it was three points, and we have six games to go.”
It would be fair to say that Celtic were again nowhere near their best as they edged out County on their return to the home front on Sunday, with the physical and mental toll of the trip to Germany clear for all to see.
They found a way though, as they have done often on that ground over recent years, and for Kuhn, it is just as vital to display such never-say-die attributes in Dingwall as it was to exhibit the flowing football they are capable of a week prior in their 6-0 win over St Johnstone.
“For us, the passing was a little bit too slow, the final pass was missing, and I think we made it a little bit difficult for ourselves,” he said.
“But we talked about it at half-time and we did much better in the second half. The manager talked about the resilience and the belief, the attitude that this team has.
“He always puts us down to earth. We have to focus on every game. We just keep going and see what the next game is, and we have to get the three points.”
And among that too, with just two minutes of regulation time remaining, Kuhn showed his quality to grab that winner.
It was a brilliant, composed finish, with the winger even having the wherewithal to ignore shouts from the crowd to square to Kyogo Furuhashi, recognising that the striker had strayed the wrong side of the defensive line, and calmly stroke the ball beyond Ross Laidlaw and into the bottom corner.
“I saw him, but I thought he was maybe offside, so I didn't cross it, and it worked out well,” he said.
“I think at the end we did a good job. Just as I said, the first half was not how we wanted it, but we showed great mentality and got the win at the end.”
That strike took Kuhn’s goal contributions to 14 in his 11 appearances for Celtic so far this season, with his six goals and eight assists a product of the hard work he is continuing to put in at Lennoxtown on a daily basis.
“We worked a lot in training on it,” he said.
“And getting a full pre-season was important to get the connection with everyone.”
