As the fireworks illuminated the night sky high above Celtic Park, RB Leipzig were being blown away by an altogether different type of firepower.
Dynamited by the most dynamic Champions League display witnessed across Brendan Rodgers’ two spells as Celtic manager, the Germans must have felt their heads were on the verge of exploding at the end of a famous night in Glasgow’s east end.
The statement European victory he has craved for years, Rodgers embraced his counterpart Marco Rose at full-time, knowing that Celtic’s Champions League campaign is now in full bloom.
Those dark depths of despair in the aftermath of Dortmund feel a long time ago now. Instead, Celtic are alive and kicking after a victory which breathes new life into their season.
This was an outstanding performance, one which saw them recover from a nervy start to eventually win in convincing fashion against a RB Leipzig team who sit second in the Bundesliga.
The entire footballing empire at Red Bull is built on energy, aggression, and an ability to press the game high up the pitch.
That was more like it for Brendan Rodgers as his side put in an impressive performance
Celtic had gone a goal down in the first half after Christoph Baumgartner scored for RB
However, Nicolas Kuhn inspired a fightback from the the Scots with two goals
In that respect, Celtic gave the Germans a taste of their own medicine. A performance of poise, composure and intelligence, and led by the mesmeric Nicolas Kuhn, Rodgers’ side were excellent.
The move which saw Kuhn make it 2-1 on the cusp of half-time typified everything about the performance.
Pressing high up the pitch, Celtic eventually won the ball back after Greg Taylor, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda had smothered Leipzig.
It was the perfect example of how to counter-press, with Celtic then slicing through Leipzig as Taylor rolled the ball across the face of goal for Kuhn to convert.
Harassing a team on the edge of their own box, and then springing forward to score, it was exactly the sort of goal Celtic have conceded all too often in Europe over recent years.
But this was evidence of a team who are maturing. Finally, after many years of being humbled at home far too frequently, this old place started to feel like a fortress once again.
It felt like an night where this Celtic team finally came of age – and a night where Rodgers finally got to grips with the Champions League.
With home game still to come against Club Brugge and Young Boys, Celtic now have a terrific opportunity to reach the knockout stage.
There were scenes of joyous celebration at the end, but it was a different story just a couple of hours earlier when the teams emerged from the tunnel.
There may not have been any pre-match pyro in the moments before kick-off, but there was still a moronic minority among the Celtic crowd who chose to disgrace themselves nonetheless.
What was supposed to be a minute’s silence to honour the victims of the recent floods in Valencia ended up with a couple of folk piercing the silence in order to shout about Palestine.
There are no UEFA charges for such matters, only a collective sense of embarrassment that a minute’s silence should be hijacked and politicised in such a fashion.
Stung by a 2-1 defeat to Borussia Dortmund at the weekend, Leipzig arrived in Glasgow still sitting second in the Bundesliga despite that setback, three points behind leaders behind Bayern Munich.
The Autobahns of Germany would have felt a long way away when their team bus became stuck in rush-hour traffic on the M8, eventually requiring a police escort to extricate it from the Glasgow gridlock.
In the opening exchanges, Rose’s men didn’t seem overly troubled by that minor travel hiccup.
Rodgers’ side got over a nervy start to the game to run out 3-1 winners on the night
Squeezing the play high up the pitch, Leipzig suffocated the life out of Celtic. Rodgers’ side couldn’t cope with the intensity of the pressing from the Germans.
Against top-class opposition who press the game so aggressively and intelligently, Rodgers once described these nights as something akin to having your head stuck in a tumble dryer.
With 20 minutes on the clock, he looked like he may have a point. Celtic couldn’t keep the ball, typified by Auston Trusty giving away possession in the move which led to Christoph Baumgartner putting the visitors 1-0 up.
Truth be told, that was Trusty’s only mistake all night. Signed for £6million in the summer, these were the nights Celtic would have sold to him in the brochure.
This was the first Champions League match where Trusty partnered Cameron Carter-Vickers in central defence, with Liam Scales unfortunate to be dropped despite helping keep a clean sheet in Bergamo last time out against Atalanta.
But, despite a ropey start to the match, Trusty and Carter-Vickers grew stronger as the night wore on, something which was reflective of Celtic as a team.
Giving Leipzig a taste of their own medicine, it was Celtic who spent much of the remainder of the game pressing high up the pitch.
Kuhn was unplayable at times. A former youth player with Leipzig, how galling it must have been for the Germans to see him standing with a can of petrol and box of matches as their house burned down around them.
On Bonfire night, it was Kuhn who lit the fire. Not only in this match, but for Celtic’s Champions League campaign as a whole.