Celtic will have a few home supporters backing them tonight in Hamburg.

Celtic could have more fans backing them against Hamburg that they first thought. Their 3,000 travelling fans will be boosted by fans from Hamburg rivals St Pauli. St Pauli play in the German Second Division and have an affinity with Celtic fans and will team up in the same section of the 50,000-plus capacity stadium. Hamburg manager Bruno Labbadia has no problems with the fans linking up at the Nordbank Arena. Hamburg are top of Group C 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 out of the tournament. It is thought that up to 1,000 St Pauli supporters will be backing the Scottish side. Labbadia, though, is relaxed about the situation. He said: "The club did the right thing. 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."

However, there could have been problems hanging over from the first leg as Hamburg fans were denied the chance to celebrate with their heroes after the 1-0 win at Parkhead last month. Strathclyde Police prevented the Hamburg players going over to their fans 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. He said: "I wouldn't say there were still bad feelings. 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 suffered their first defeat of the season against Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday. This may have brought them back to reality a bit after they were installed as strong favourites to complete the double over Celtic. Labbadia is keen to prevent any any overconfidence among his squad ahead of the game. 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."

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