Mowbray's first season at Celtic has ended in a disappointing European campaign

By Martin Conaghan

It was goodnight Vienna for Celtic in the Europa League after Hamburg ended a poor run of results to defeat Austrian side Rapid Vienna 2-0 in Germany and end the Glasgow side's hopes of qualifying for the round of 32.

Despite Tony Mowbray's side finally earning a home win in the tournament against Hapoel Tel-Aviv, the Israelis will now slug it out with Hamburg for the top slot in Group C, while Celtic will join their old nemesis, Rapid, on the European scrapheap.

Former Celtic midfielders Murdo MacLeod and John Collins praised the performance of Mowbray's side in the penultimate group match, but both expected more from their former club in the crucial opening matches of the tournament.

now need to go to Vienna and get another victory to give the whole team some more confidence Former Celtic midfielder Murdo MacLeod

But MacLeod believes that the win was needed to boost Celtic's hopes of winning back the Scottish Premier League title from Rangers after an indifferent start to the season in terms of form.

"It was important for Celtic to get a home win in the Europa League against Hapoel," he said.

"They were up against it to qualify in their last two matches, but the home win lifted their whole European campaign a little and they now need to go to Vienna and get another victory to give the whole team some more confidence.

"Sometimes, we don't rate teams from smaller nations highly enough and Hapoel have demonstrated they're a capable team.

"I think, for Tony Mowbray, the headlines from this campaign will be the missed opportunities.

"The ultimate aim of any European campaign is to win your home games and Celtic just didn't do that this season."

Collins concurred with MacLeod's assessment of Celtic's disappointing campaign and agreed it was important for Mowbray's side to gain a foothold on their domestic season and banish the negative headlines that have dogged recent performances.

"Tony will be happy with the result against Hapoel - there's a lot of positives to take from the overall performance," said Collins after the victory following goals from Georgios Samaras and Barry Robson.

"I'm sure the fans will also be delighted with another victory - but Celtic need to keep playing like that, because it's ultimately what the fans want to see.

"Celtic could have scored more goals on the break in their games in this tournament and Tony might feel that his players should have taken some of the chances they missed, especially against Hapoel.

I'm sure the fans will also be delighted with another victory - but Celtic need to keep playing like that, because it's ultimately what the fans want to see Former Celtic midfielder John Collins

"But those are minor negatives - the positives, for this match alone, are a home victory and a clean sheet."

Celtic now travel to face Rapid in their final group match five days before Christmas, with only bragging rights at stake.

A win would secure the Glasgow outfit in third position above Rapid and MacLeod believes it could provide Mowbray with an opportunity to regroup and look towards next season's European campaign.

"Hopefully, things will get better again," added the former Celtic assistant boss. "But the last few years just haven't been great.

"Celtic now need to look towards the Rapid game and aim not to finish at the bottom of the group."

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