Celtic have taken five points from five games in Group C to date, Rapid four, but Hamburger SV and Hapoel Tel Aviv have secured the top two positions in the table and there will be no European football after Christmas for either Tony Mowbray’s or Peter Pacult’s men. The game, then, is a dead rubber.
While last season’s Scottish and Austrian league runners-up have had to face up to an inability to joust in earnest with their German and Israeli opponents, however, both sides will be cheered by good recent domestic form and both are well-placed to win their national championships.
Markus Heikkinen, the former Aberdeen midfielder now plying his trade either just in front of the Rapid defence or at its heart, told The Herald he had been surprised at Celtic’s rather feeble campaign, but was not at a loss to explain his own team’s faltering progress.
“To be honest, I thought Celtic and Hamburg would be clear favourites in the group,” said the Finn. “The draw we got at Celtic Park [1-1] was a very good result for us against quality opposition, it was a very difficult away game. So we were pretty satisfied with that, especially after winning our first game against Hamburg [3-0 in Vienna].
“But we knew we needed to be at our very best in these games to get anything out of them. Our season started in July, so I think in October, November it started to show that it has been a long season. Basically, we have been playing with the same starting line-up all along, so the freshness wasn’t there any more. In the Austrian league you can get away with it, but in the Europa League we started to get slower and tired, and we were punished. We made some very stupid mistakes, especially against Hapoel. There was too much pressure on the small squad. ”
The talk earlier in the season was of Austrian football having received a shot in the arm with four of the country’s sides -- Rapid, Red Bull Salzburg, Austria Vienna and Sturm Graz -- qualifying for the Europa League group stages. Fast forward a few months and Red Bull, having won all five matches to date in a group containing Villarreal and Lazio, are the only member of the quartet to remain in the competition, with the other three all bottom of their respective groups going into this week.
Rapid have the consolation of heading into a winter break after tomorrow night’s game leading the Austrian Bundesliga by two points from Red Bull, although their rivals, who were bought by the energy drinks company in 2005, have a much bigger squad to draw on in the title run-in.
“Everyone expects Red Bull Salzburg to be in front, so it will remain difficult for Rapid,” according to Thomas Hochwarter of the Austrian Times. “There are three teams at the top, really, with Austria Vienna in third who are very strong at home. Red Bull will be expected to win the league -- there will be no excuses if they don’t. They have been able to invest in their squad, and their other advantage is that they play on an artificial surface which makes it difficult for away teams.”
As for Rapid’s Europa League campaign, which began so promisingly with a shock 3-0 win at home to Hamburg after Aston Villa were dispatched in qualifying, but later foundered with back-to-back defeats away and home to Hapoel, Hochwarter added: “The first match against Hamburg was an extraordinary result, but it was seen as a one-off and probably won’t be repeated soon. We are a small league and everything went right for the team that night.
“The team was keeping its feet on the ground after that, but I think the fans got too optimistic. The game against Hapoel away from home was a real beating, but they were a better team and they have good international players.
“Rapid don’t have too many outstanding individual players, although they do play together well as a team. There are some younger talents such as Christopher Draza and Yasin Pehlivan. They are very promising players, but I think in the European campaign there has been a lot of pressure and they are mentally tired.”
While a heavy fixture pile-up between now and the turn of the year may influence Tony Mowbray’s thinking about this game in terms of team selection and tactics, there was no sense from Austria that the hosts will be looking for anything other than a home win to tide them over the Christmas period.
Heikkinen insisted: “It’s a game we want to win, the fans will turn out for it and they will want to see the team put in a fight and try to win the game. The players are playing for pride and for the fans as well. I don’t know what it will be for Celtic, but by no means will it be a case of nothing to play for for us.”
And as for the rest of the season? “Last year they [Red Bull] won and we finished second, and in the season before that we won and they finished second, so it’s been pretty even between us. This is the best position we have been in in the last few years going into the winter break, so we have to be confident that we can be champions.”
Celtic might console themselves with the thought that while Rapid have cash-rich Red Bull to contend with, their own closest SPL rivals are a financially-stricken Rangers.
