'At a club like Celtic you never give up'

Celtic FC midfielder Barry Robson is not throwing in the towel even after a 0-0 draw at Hamburger SV left their UEFA Europa League future hanging by a thread.

Five-point gap
The visitors, beaten at home by Hamburg a fortnight ago, had their chances on Thursday night but have only two points in Group C, still five adrift of second-placed HSV. Tony Mowbray's side must now defeat both leaders Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC and SK Rapid Wien next month and hope both sides beat Hamburg for Celtic to pip the German side to the round of 32 – and Robson is still clinging to that hope.

Frustration
"At a club like Celtic you can never give up," he told uefa.com. "We know Hamburg are a good outfit, but we just have to win our next two games and then see." Although outplayed for most of the second half, Celtic did fashion some opportunities over the 90 minutes. "We had three great chances, including two one-on-ones with Scott McDonald and their keeper," Robson added. "We were also solid as a unit and well organised. We could have taken at least three points from our two games against Hamburg."

Confident Berg
Hamburg striker Marcus Berg, who scored the winner two weeks ago in Glasgow, agreed that the visitors made life difficult for his side, particularly in the first half, but said the problems were of the home team's own making. "The chances they got were because we played ourselves into trouble and they countered," Berg said. "Obviously we wanted to win at home, but we've still got a good chance to make the next round, so it's not as if we're crying in the dressing room."

Hinkel's return
For Celtic's German defender Andreas Hinkel, the game obviously had extra poignancy. "It's a great feeling to be back in Germany but that's not what it was about tonight," said the former VfB Stuttgart player. "We're disappointed because we could have taken more from the game. Our organisation was good, and especially in the first half we played the ball quickly to our strikers, but at the moment we just can't seem to score. All the games we've played have been tight; we could have won all of them. But now it doesn't look very good for us."