Rapid Vienna are just wanting to play Celtic twice this time around.

Rapid Vienna wants the papers to be full of news of the football aspect of tonight's game at Celtic Park, according to defender Ragnvald Soma, rather than any off-the-field incidents. The build-up to tonight's Europa League game has been tinged with memories of a 25-year-old controversy over their last meeting when the Austrians succeeded after a UEFA ordered third game at Old Trafford. Rapid lost the second leg 3-0 at Celtic Park to go out of the European Cup Winners' Cup on aggregate but were awarded a replay because a bottle was thrown on to the park from the Parkhead 'Jungle' enclosure. The game was ordered despite Rapid being fined by UEFA for falsely claiming Rudi Weinhoffer had been struck by the missile. There still appears to be some resentment among former Celtic players, including current first-team coach Peter Grant, who have spoken about the sense of injustice after Rapid reach the final, where they lost to Everton.

The Austrians' 1-0 win in front of more than 50,000 fans in Manchester was not trouble free. There were two fan attacks on their players, including current manager Peter Pacult. And while Soma expects a hostile atmosphere at Parkhead, the centre-back insists Rapid must focus on the present and not the past.

He said: "I was only just born when it happened. We are here to play the game and here with the team of 2009. We are here to make our names and we want to make it as good as possible. It's a totally different game now. What happened back then, happened back then. You can still understand people are not happy about what happened. I guess I would be upset myself if I lost a final because there needed to be a third game. But on the other hand you can't really blame any other teams. There were some people in the crowd who made it happen. But we can't think too much about it. We have to play the game here and hopefully get a good result." Norwegian Soma went on: "I guess it's going to be a big fight, playing at their ground and I expect there's going to be a lot of people in the stands supporting them. But we just have to clear the first wave and then we can start on our own game. We just have to cope with what comes with it. For us, it's here and now that matters and we just have to make the best of it."

Rapid knocked out Aston Villa in the qualifiers and beat Hamburg 3-0 in their opening group game while Celtic let slip a lead to lose at Hapoel Tel Aviv. But Soma considers Celtic one of the contenders to lift the trophy. He said: "It's a great team, they play in the same kind of league we do with two very good teams. They are good enough to win the whole lot."
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