LMSL

Photo courtesy sandro.s's Flickr account

Football fans have for years had to endure the proverbial old chestnut from managers and players about how minnows are playing in ‘their cup final’ when they travel to play against bigger clubs.

Unfortunately for Celtic, which visits Hamburger SV in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday, the Hoops’ matchup with their German foe marks one of those instances.

Hamburg’s HSH Nordbank Arena will be the site of the first-ever Europa League final next May, and if the current Group C table is anything to go by, group-leading Hamburg stands a decent chance of making it to the final that it’s hosting.  Die Rothosen currently sit reasonably comfortable atop the group with six points, two ahead of both Hapoel Tel-Aviv of Israel and Rapid Wien of Austria with two games following Thursday’s action.

Bottom of the group, though, is a Celtic side that has only managed to gain a single point in the group so far – a 1-1 draw against Wien at Celtic Park on Oct. 1 – and manager Tony Mowbray’s men know that they need to get a result in northern Germany on Thursday and also get help from Hapoel and Wien if Celtic stands much of a chance of finishing in the top two of the group and qualifying for the knockout stage of the competition.

While Celtic lost to Hamburg in the clubs’ first group meeting on Oct. 22, Hapoel demolished Wien 5-1 in Israel on the same night.  A similar result between those two teams in Austria on Thursday as well as a Celtic loss in Germany would open up an eight-point gap between Hamburg and Hapoel at the top of the group and Celtic at the bottom, thus dashing the Scots’ European dream with two group games still to be played.

Making matters worse, Celtic travels to Germany with a particularly worrisome injury list.  Midfielders Shaun Maloney and Scott Brown are both out with lower-leg injuries, and first-choice goalkeeper Artur Boruc is recovering from a minor knee operation.  Also, midfielder Zheng Zhi will be a no-show, as Celtic signed the captain of the Chinese national team after UEFA’s registration deadline for the Europa League group phase.

Hamburg has its fair share of injuries, too, with first-choice strikers Paolo Guerrero and Milan Petric out, amongst others, for Thursday’s Europa League clash.  Mowbray and his Celtic squad know that they can only worry about their own performance at the venue of this season’s Europa League final – After all, Celtic has no chance of returning to Hamburg again this season if it falters again on Thursday.

Matthew Semisch