Hamburg, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Rapid Vienna will face Celtic in Group C

Celtic manager Tony Mowbray dampened expectations about another run to a European final after the first-ever Europa League group draw.

The Glasgow club are in Group C with Hamburg, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Rapid Vienna after losing in the Champions League play-off to Arsenal.

"We go into it hoping we can do well, but we are very respectful of the teams that are in there," said Mowbray.

"I also saw Hamburg do very well against Man City last season."

Celtic defender Danny Fox thinks there is an opportunity to match the 2003 achievement of reaching the final of the Europa League's predecessor, the Uefa Cup.

But Mowbray said: "When I said after the game against Arsenal that none of the teams in the Europa League would be as strong as them, that was a fair comment.

"But there are some really good European teams and the expectations of Roma and Villarreal will also be very high.

The standard of opposition is high, but these are the games you want to play in Celtic defender Danny Fox

"They have Champions League pedigree in recent years."

Hamburg were the main seeds in Celtic's group.

"They have some talented players," said Mowbray. "They are a big club with a lot of money spent on their footballers so it's a great challenge for us.

"We are looking to be competitive, but I am not going to put an unnecessary burden on the players."

Fox was relishing the prospect of playing in more European games despite the 5-1 aggregate defeat by Arsenal.

"It's going to be a tough test, but we are all looking forward to the competition and I'm sure the other sides will relish it as well," he said.

"The standard of opposition is high, but these are the games you want to play in.

"I enjoyed the Arsenal games and, even though we lost the two legs, we'll take positives from those matches going into the Europa League.

"Who knows how far we can go? We went into the Dinamo Moscow game and few people expected us to win, but we did and played a very good style of football. If we do that, we'll do well."

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