Hamburg boss Bruno Labbadia has no problems with fans from city rivals St Pauli swelling the Celtic support for Europa League Group C clash at the Nordbank Arena.

Supporters of the Parkhead club and St Pauli, from the Second Division in Germany, have an affinity and will team up in the same section of the 50,000-plus capacity stadium to back the visitors in their attempt to get their European hopes back on track with a much-needed win.

Hamburg are top of the table with Hapoel Tel Aviv on six points from three games, while Tony Mowbray's side are bottom of the table with one point and defeat could see them exit the tournament.

However, around 3,000 optimistic Hoops fans are expected to arrive in the city to be joined on the night of the game by up to 1,000 St Pauli supporters.

And Labbadia is relaxed about the situation.

"The club did the right thing," he said. "The St Pauli fans are in the Celtic sections and, the way I see it, there will be probably be around 600 to 1,000 more Celtic fans for this game.

"We have to realise the facts. We know that the clubs are closely related but, no, it is not a problem for us."

Hamburg are strong favourites to complete the double over Celtic but Labbadia has tried to prevent any overconfidence among his players, who suffered their first defeat of the season against Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday.

He said: "This is virtually Celtic's last chance but we know the quality of their players and we have to be at our best to make sure that we win.

"The first-leg victory was very important to us. We have to put them under pressure and, with the help of our fans, we can do that."

Labbadia will give a fitness test to defender Jerome Boateng, who picked up a knock against Monchengladbach.

Celtic right-back Andreas Hinkel, who missed the 1-0 loss to Hamburg two weeks ago, is aware of the task facing his side if they want to keep their Europa League hopes alive.

"The mathematics are simple," said the German. "We know we have to win all three games left but it's not as if we were annihilated in the three games so far.

"All the games have been very tight and we could have won them all.

"We could have beaten Rapid Vienna and we had equally good chances against Hapoel and Hamburg.

"But I expect a very tough game against Hamburg. I think they are the favourites, they are playing at home and they have a decent side."