Striker is key to Celtic’s fortunes

Stuart Condie

• Last Updated: November 04. 2009 8:19PM UAE / November 4. 2009 4:19PM GMT

LONDON // Celtic are counting on their returning French striker, Marc-Antoine Fortune, in their hunt for an unlikely victory tonight to retain any realistic hope of qualifying from the group stage of the Europa League.

The former European champions, who reached the knockout stages of the European Champions League in two of the past three years, visit the Group C co-leader Hamburg having managed just one point from three games.

Hamburg won 1-0 at Celtic two weeks ago, but that was with the Scottish side’s star striker on the sidelines. With Fortune back after being out for eight weeks with a knee injury, their manager, Tony Mowbray, is hoping his team can add to their paltry total of two tournament goals. “We will give them respect, but we know we have to score a goal over there,” he said.

“We’ll set the team up to stay in the game but we’ll also be pushing the longer the game goes on and hopefully we get the rewards out of it.”

Celtic are three points behind the third-placed Rapid Vienna, who host Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Hapoel and Hamburg have six points each.

AS Roma are seeking to improve upon their lacklustre Group E form when they host Fulham. Marco Andreolli scored with a last-minute volley two weeks ago to earn Roma, who are also struggling in Serie A at 14th in the standings, a 1-1 draw at the west London club.

Victory is just as important to Fulham, who are a point ahead of Roma but have just one home game left to the Italian team’s two.

“They scored a great goal at the end, I’m sure that we can make up for it when we make the trip to Rome,” said the Fulham midfielder Zoltan Gera.

“It’s a massive game for us, and one that we really need to win. A European night in Rome shows how far this club has come. We made a lot of people sit up and take notice of us last season, so it’s nice to be doing that on the European stage as well – a win would certainly do that.”

FC Basel, who have six points and lead second-place Fulham by one point, host CSKA Sofia in the other Group E match. Another struggling Italian side, Lazio, are at Villarreal in Group G.

Lazio are one place and three points behind their city rivals Roma in Serie A, but could clinch a place in the next round with a win in Spain.

Lazio beat Villarreal 2-1 two weeks ago to sit three points behind the leaders Salzburg, despite having a player sent off in the 68th minute. Salzburg are among the three teams in the 48-club tournament with maximum points ahead of their trip to Levski Sofia. The others, Sporting Lisbon and the trophy holder Shakhtar Donetsk, play Ventspils and Toulouse respectively.

Everton host Benfica seeking revenge for a 5-0 loss in Portugal in the last round of matches. The English club are slowly emerging from an injury crisis that has hampered their start to the season. Everton have not won in their last six matches, but with Leighton Baines, Joseph Yobo and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov back in action they could take the Group I lead if they beat Benfica

“The defeat over in Portugal was difficult to take,” the Everton midfielder Jack Rodwell said. “In the first 45 minutes we were as good if not better than Benfica. Now they’ve got to come to our ground and we have to show Benfica what a good side we are. We owe Benfica one and we owe it to ourselves.”

Elsewhere tonight Ajax host Dinamo Zagreb, Slavia Prague host Valencia, Galatasaray travel to Dinamo Bucharest and PSV Eindhoven visit FC Copenhagen.

* AP