Bruno Labbadia admits Hamburg will have to improve on their performance against Anderlecht if they want to win the Europa League.

The Bundesliga side went down 4-3 in Brussels to progress to the quarter-finals 6-5 on aggregate.

They were made to work hard for their place in the last eight, though, and it was not until Mladen Petric's goal 15 minutes from time that they finally saw off the home side.

The final will take place at Hamburg's HSV Arena, but Labbadia feels his side - who have now conceded four goals for two games running after losing 4-2 to Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend - need to improve if they want to get there and win.

"We saw that we still have a lot of hard work in front of us if we want to achieve something in the Europa League," he said on the club's official website.

"But for now, we will satisfy ourselves with the fact that we are among the best eight sides in what is a very strong field in this competition.

"It was tight, but in the end we deserved to go through."

President Bernd Hoffmann added: "We are through, and that is all that counts.

"It is of course frustrating that we trembled for so long, but in the end all that counts is being in the quarter finals.

"The day after tomorrow, nobody will be talking anymore about how we made it into the next round."