McDonald and Samaras lead the attack

Scott McDonald and Georgios Samaras have been given the striking roles as Celtic attempt to salvage their Europa Cup campaign with a win against Hamburg.

Marco Fortune remains on the bench where he is joined by Stephen McManus who is available again after Saturday's domestic suspension

Celtic team: Zaluska; Hinkel, Loovens, Caldwell, Fox; Robson, N'Guemo, Crosas, McGeady; McDonald, Samaras
SUBS Cervi, Wilson, Fortune, McGinn, McCourt, Naylor.

Hamburg lose at home to lowly Moenchengladbach

Europa League opponents Hamburg lost 3-2 at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach yesterday to drop down to third place in the Bundesliga.

It was the second week running that Bruno Labbadia's side have lost three goals and should provide Celtic with some hope for Thursday's match.

Anything less than a win would effectively end Celtic's interest in the group with Hamburg favourites to qualify with two of their final three matches at home.

The defeat from Borussia was the biggest shock of the day in the Bundesliga and was the first away win of the season for Moenchengladbach.

Hamburg were twice in front but were unable to retain their lead and lost out when Canadian striker Rob Friend scored his second goal in the 82nd minute in front of a crowd of 57,000.

FRUSTRATING

After the defeat Labbadia said: "We didn't play well enough as a team, it's frustrating to lose when we were twice in the lead.

"It's our first setback of the season but now we have to get ready for the game with Celtic, that is our next challenge.

"We will focus on the Celtic game throughout the week knowing that a win will put us in a great position to qualify for the next stage of the Europa League."

Celtic are certain to go into the match without Artur Boruc which hands a European debut to Lucasz Zaluska.

TESTING

The former Dundee United keeper has played in Celtic's last three matches and is looking forward to testing himself against the Germans.

He said: "It's a big game for me. Yeah, it's special for a Pole to face a German team, but it's more when the Polish national team face Germany.

"It's more that the game in Hamburg is the last chance for Celtic to play more games in Europe. I think it will be a great game.

ATMOSPHERE

"It's a big moment for me, my first game in Europe, but I think the better atmosphere is Celtic Park. I don't think the atmosphere in Hamburg will be anything special.

"I expected a better team when Hamburg came. They are one of the top teams in the Bundesliga, but managed only two shots at Celtic Park, so anything is possible in this game."

In the other fixture in Group C Raid Vienna will be looking for revenge after losing 5-1 to Hapoel in Tel Aviv.

At the weekend Rapid won 1-0 at home to SV Ried while Hapoel won their derby match with Macabbi 1-0.

Celtic v Hamburg tonight, not Scotland v Hamburg

Contrary to some opinions being expressed elsewhere tonight's Europa League tie with SV Hamburg is about Celtic, it's not Scottish Football v SV Hamburg, it's actually Celtic v Hamburg.

What happens elsewhere and in the 'bigger picture' is only of interest to the tiny percentage of football followers who have no allegiance to any particular club.

Tonight the vast majority of football supporters in Scotland will be hoping for a Hamburg win, they have no interest in Hamburg but would love to see Celtic lose.

It was the same scenario on Tuesday when supporters up and down the country cheered wildly as a Romanian team that they would struggle to spell made up of players they didn't know beat Rangers 4-1 at Ibrox.

SUPPORTERS

That's life, that's the way supporters are, supporters support their team, nothing else. Supporters have no interest in the co-efficient, they want their team to succeed, to win, to progress.

The downside of any European success is that it allows other teams into Europe when they are clearly not at the races for that level of competition as the results of Aberdeen, Motherwell and Falkirk have demonstrated, there should never be more than three Scottish teams involved in European football if there is any interest in the mythical co-efficient.

It's always refreshing to see a manager speak up on the subject and within 24 hours of Rangers defeat from Unirea Tony Mowbray wasn't taking on any extra responsibility for the sake of Scottish football.

Managing Celtic is a big enough challenge for Mowbray, being expected to produce results for the Scottish game is asking far too much of the former West Brom and Hibs manager.

RESPONSIBILITY

Tonight Mowbray's only objective is a Celtic win, he said: "Do I feel a responsibility for the Scottish game? No.

"I have a responsibility to our supporters to try to give them a performance that they are happy with and hopefully try to get us some points.

"If it helps the mood around Scottish football then great, but basically we will be out to get some points to try to progress in a European competition."

A win tonight would be a great boost for a Celtic side that is clearly lacking in confidence and belief.

DISILLUSIONED

The season has yet to really catch fire with the new signings currently out injured and a deja-vu feeling to much of the games with supporters disillusioned and questioning the value that they are getting from their ticket money.

Without wishing to tempt fate the next couple of SPL fixtures aren't the most daunting, if Celtic can get back involved in the Europa League and put together a few SPL wins at the same time as Marc-Antoine Fortune returns from injury then things should start to look up.

Clearly the squad is some distance short of that required to be comfortable and competitive in the Champions League but some signs of recovery would be welcome.

The team has been on the slide for a while, there has been occasional highlights like the 2008 title win at Tannadice and last season's Co-Operative Cup win, but overall the graph has been downwards.

Confidence is essential in football but it only comes through winning matches, a win tonight would give the players some respite and the supporters hope that the club is at last moving forward towards recapturing some of the excitement and anticipation that has followed Celtic over the last decade.

Hamburg draw at home ahead of Celtic tie

Hamburg drew at home yesterday with Bayer Leverkusen to leave both team in joint top spot in the Bundesliga with 21 points from nine games.

Thursday's Europa League tie becomes more daunting by the day with confidence low amongst both players and supporters approaching the visit of the Germans.

Facing the leaders of the Bundesliga would have been a tough enough task for the better Celtic side's of recent seasons, I doubt if there will be any Celtic supporters confident of a home win on Thursday.

Yesterday's draw with Leverkusen was the first points that Hamburg have dropped at home this season with their away record almost as impressive with two wins and two draws from four matches.

Hamburg did of course lose spectacularly away to Rapid Vienna 3-0 in the opening match of the Europa League but that appears to be a one off blip in an impressive start to the season by Bruno Labbadia's side.

Of more concern than the form of Hamburg is Celtic's own performances with the goal-less draw against Motherwell allowing Rangers to move into top place.

Although it was the first time this season that the team had failed to score the result wasn't really surprising against a young, fit and organised Motherwell side who took a point from Celtic without being outstanding.

For many supporters it was a distressing return to last season which was hardly surprising since none of Tony Mowbray's summer signings were in the starting line-up.

Despite that fact Mowbray knows that more is expected from HIS team, yesterdays side should have had enough about them to break down a resolute but limited Motherwell team.

After the match the Celtic manager came up with some impressive statistics about his side's performance but again that sounded more like a throwback to last season when Gordon Strachan would produce some stats to deflect from his side's shortcomings.

A massive effort is now required if Celtic are to remain in contention to qualify from the Europa League, but again, expectations are low amongst a support that has had very little to get enthused or excited about over the last 18 months.

Elsewhere in the Europa League Rapid Vienna travel to meet Sturn Graz in the Austrian league, Rapid are currently in third place domestically, a win away to fourth placed Graz would take Rapid to a point behind Salzburg and Austria Vienna.

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