Hamburg bid to hold off Rapid

Hamburger SV can secure their place in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 on Matchday 5 if they can avenge the 3-0 defeat by SK Rapid Wien they suffered in their Group C opener.

• Should Rapid win, they would move above Hamburg on head-to-head record. If Hamburg pick up a point, Celtic FC will be eliminated. If Hamburg win, Rapid will also be out.

Previous meetings
• The clubs met for the first time on Matchday 1, with Hamburg losing their first game against Austrian opposition 3-0. This is Rapid's eighth away encounter with opponents from across the border in UEFA club competition. They lost all seven of their previous fixtures in Germany.

Match background
• HSV are unbeaten in their last three European home games. Their Hamburg Arena will host this season's inaugural UEFA Europa League final on 12 May 2010.

• Rapid have not triumphed in their last four European away fixtures but scored at least once in all those games.

• A 3-0 loss to section leaders Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC on Matchday 4 was Rapid's heaviest home defeat in the UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League.

Team facts
• Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia is the only player to have scored more than 100 goals in both of the top two divisions in Germany. A striker for FC Bayern München, Werder Bremen and HSV, among others, he won two caps for Germany and took over from Martin Jol at Hamburg this summer following a season at Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

• Hamburg striker Mladen Petrić has been ruled out for the remainder of the group stage after tearing ligaments in his left ankle in a 3-1 win at Hertha BSC Berlin on 4 October.

• Defenders Alex Silva (torn cruciate knee ligaments) and Bastian Reinhardt (metatarsal fracture), midfielder Collin Benjamin (knee) and striker José Paolo Guerrero (torn cruciate knee ligaments) are already on the sidelines for Labbadia's side.

• Rapid coach Peter Pacult was a prolific scorer for his current club, FC Tirol Innsbruck and TSV 1860 München during a playing career that brought him 24 caps for Austria. He has been in charge at Rapid since 2006, rejoining the club following spells at the helm of 1860 München, FC Kärnten and 1. FC Dynamo Dresden.

• Pacult scored twice for the club when they beat Dynamo Dresden 5-0 in the home leg of their 1984/85 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final. He also played in the final defeat by Everton.

• Rapid captain Steffen Hofmann is German. The former Bayern trainee and 1860 München player is the only member of the squad to have any significant experience of German football.

• Hofmann and Hamburg midfielder Piotr Trochowski were trainees together at Bayern in the early part of this decade, both making regular appearances for the club's third division amateur side.

• Germany beat Austria 1-0 at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium at UEFA EURO 2008™, with defenders Jürgen Patocka and Markus Katzer – both unused substitutes – the only Rapid players involved. Hamburg's German internationals Trochowski and Marcell Jansen were consigned to the bench for the duration as well.

• Rapid host Celtic in their final Group C game on 17 December, with Hamburg visiting Tel Aviv on the same night.