Scott McDonald equalises against Rapid Vienna at Celtic Park

By John Barnes

Murdo MacLeod believes the Celtic players owe the fans a European performance of note against Rapid Vienna on Thursday.

The BBC Scotland pundit and former Celtic midfielder insists it's time for Tony Mowbray's men to produce the goods in their final match in the Europa League in Austria, despite neither side being able to qualify for the next stage.

"Celtic's away record in European football hasn't been great over the last few years," said MacLeod.

"When you are a Celtic player you owe it to the fans to go out and give 100%, play well and try to get all three points."

Celtic sit third in Group C, one point above Rapid Vienna. The onus on both sides is not to be the team who finishes bottom of the group.

Hamburg and Hapoel Tel-Aviv, who currently sit first and second, have qualified for the last 32 of the competition.

"It's so important Celtic finish on a high," said MacLeod.

"Possibly at the start Celtic and Rapid Vienna were two teams everyone was talking about as possible favourites along with Hamburg.

"It was expected they would cruise quite comfortably through and now both of them are out and struggling.

"Rapid Vienna got off to a good start but Celtic never really got to grips with the section. They won their last home game against Hapoel; now it's really important to get the win away from home and that will lift the players for the league campaign."

Celtic manager Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Scotland at the weekend after the win over Motherwell that his focus was more on Sunday's SPL fixture against Hearts at Tynecastle.

It would be a nightmare if Celtic finished last in the group when you've got a team like Hapoel Tel-Aviv in it Murdo MacLeod Former Celtic player and manager

He described the Europa League match as a "dead rubber" but admitted he would try to keep confidence in his side by trying to win the match.

And MacLeod says the players can't treat this as a meaningless fixture.

He said: "If you've got to lift yourself for a game like this, then you've got a problem and you shouldn't be in the side.

"Every footballer has his own pride. He wants to win games.

"In training matches, five-a-side matches, there's nothing to play for there. But for your own pride you want to win.

"So I think when you get the chance to play in a European football match away from home for Celtic you've got to be desperate to play and desperate to win.

"It would be a nightmare if Celtic finished last in the group when you've got a team like Hapoel Tel-Aviv in it. They're not a bad side, but Celtic shouldn't be worrying about a quality of opposition like Hapoel."

Celtic have accumulated 1.14m euros (£1.03m) from participation in the Europa League, excluding TV revenue. They have the opportunity to add a further 120,000 euros should they win on Thursday. A draw would earn them 60,000 euros.

But, in terms of Scottish football's co-efficient, a win could be worth far more than these sums.

In a dreadful season for Scottish teams in Europe, the two co-efficient points that victory would bring could keep Scotland ahead of countries like Belgium and the Czech Republic in the Uefa rankings, which take account of results in the past five seasons.

The effect of that would be our Scottish Premier League winners might yet avoid playing two or three Champions League qualifying rounds from the season after next.

MacLeod also believes manager Mowbray should not experiment too much with his team selection in Vienna.

"I think he should stick close to the side he's got playing really well for him over the last two or three matches," he said.

"They've looked sharp, are on a high just now and I would like to see that continue because they're going into an important period with a lot of tough matches coming up."

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