HAMBURG manager Bruno Labbadia has no problems with fans from city rivals St Pauli swelling the Celtic support for tonight's 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 Celtic fans 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 be 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 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."
Hamburg are strong favourites to complete the double over Celtic but Labbadia tried to prevent any overconfidence among his players, who suffered their first defeat of the season against Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday.
He said: "This is virtually Celtic's last chance but we know the quality of their players and we have to be at our best to make sure that we win. The first-leg victory was very important to us.
"Celtic are going to be compact and go for the counter.
"They are very good at switching from defence to attack and we have to do the same thing while making sure we don't lose one at the back.
"We have to put them under pressure and with the help of our fans we can do that."
Labbadia will give a fitness test to defender Jerome Boateng who picked up a knock in the weekend defeat by Moenchengladbach.
