Labbadia comfortable as rivals back Celtic
Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 by PA
Hamburg boss Bruno Labbadia has no problems with fans from city rivals St Pauli swelling the Celtic support for their Europa League Group C clash at the Nordbank Arena.
Supporters of the Parkhead club and St Pauli, from the Second Division in Germany, have an affinity and will team up in the same section of the 50,000-plus capacity stadium, with Hamburg's approval, to back the visitors in their attempt to get their European hopes back on track with a much-needed win.
Hamburg are top of table with Hapoel Tel Aviv on six points from three games, Rapid Vienna have four points, while Tony Mowbray's side are bottom of the table with one point and defeat could see them exit the tournament.
However, around 3,000 optimistic Hoops are expected to arrive in the city to be joined on the night of the game by up to 1,000 St Pauli supporters.
Labbadia, though, is relaxed about the situation.
"The club did the right thing," he said. "The St Pauli fans are in the Celtic sections and the way I see it, there will probably be around 600 to 1,000 more Celtic fans for this game.
"We have to realise the facts.
"We know that the clubs are closely related but, no, it is not a problem for us."
Hamburg fans were denied the chance to celebrate with their heroes after the 1-0 win at Celtic Park last month.
Strathclyde Police prevented the Hamburg players going over to their supporters and Labbadia revealed afterwards that he had been warned that his club could be reported to UEFA.
However, the former Bayern Munich striker denies that there is any lingering resentment.
"I wouldn't say there were still bad feelings," Labbadia said. "There was a reason why it happened because there had been problems with other teams' supporters before and Celtic have been fined.
"So we do understand.
"Maybe the way it was communicated to us could have been done better but that's the way it goes.
"We were happy to win in Glasgow and here in Hamburg, the players can go to our fans and celebrate accordingly."
Meanwhile, Andreas Hinkel will get a golden chance to stake his claim for a World Cup spot.
The former Stuttgart and Sevilla right-back played for Germany in summer friendlies against China and United Arab Emirates but lost his place in the subsequent World Cup qualifiers as Joachim Low's side booked their place in South Africa next year with a 1-0 win in Russia last month.
Hinkel, 27, knows he has the perfect opportunity to impress Low and the rest of the German nation although he tried to play down the pressure he must be feeling to perform.
"I am happy to be here," he said. "It is the first time that I have played against a German team since I left the country and so it is a special game for me.
"It is a game against a German team and all the people in Germany can see me, (which is unusual) because it is difficult to watch Scottish football here.
"My family and friends are coming to watch the game so I am looking forward to it
"You always feel a little bit of pressure but I think I can handle this pressure.
"It is one opportunity but it is just one game.
"I try to keep my levels high for the whole season in Scotland.
"That's all I can do and the rest is a decision for the Germany coach."
Tony Mowbray is considering starting fit-again Marc-Antoine Fortune in the crunch clash.
Fortune came on as a second-half substitute in Saturday's 3-0 Clydesdale Bank Premier League win over Kilmarnock, his first action since injuring his knee against Arsenal in August.
"Marco is fit and ready," Mowbray said. "He's been out for nine weeks and got 20 minutes or half an hour the other day. Am I tempted to play him? Yes.
"The more high-quality players on the pitch, the better it is but we have some strikers who will be bursting to score. So we will wait and see what we decide."
Mowbray refused to accept the win-or-bust scenario his side find themselves in with three games remaining.
He said: "Win or bust? As I said before, I wouldn't talk about win-or-bust games.
"It's a game where we have to be conscious of the quality of the opposition, of course.
"But we will try to win as we try to win every football match.
"We will be as positive as we can and try and get a positive result and see where we go from there."
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