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Duel to avoid Group C wooden spoon

Consolation is all that is on offer at the Ernst Happel Stadium, with SK Rapid Wien looking for a win against Celtic FC to avoid finishing bottom of UEFA Europa League Group C.

Duel to avoid Group C wooden spoon
Duel to avoid Group C wooden spoon ©UEFA.com

Consolation is all that is on offer at the Ernst Happel Stadium, with SK Rapid Wien looking for a win against Celtic FC to avoid finishing bottom of UEFA Europa League Group C.

• Results on Matchday 5 ensured that both clubs would miss the cut for the round of 32, with Hamburger SV and Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC taking the qualifying places.

Previous meetings
• David Hay's Celtic and Otto Barić's Rapid met in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round, with the Austrian side winning 3-1 at home – current coach Peter Pacult scoring Rapid's opener. Celtic won the return leg 3-0 but the result was annulled after crowd trouble. The game was then replayed at Old Trafford, with Rapid winning 1-0.

• The squads for the meeting in Vienna on 24 October 1984 were:
Rapid: Feurer, Lainer, Brauneder, Pregesbauer, Weber, Kienast (Garger, 65), Kranjčar, Panenka, Krankl, Bručić, Pacult.
Celtic: Bonner, McGrain, Reid, Aitken, William McStay, Grant, Provan, Paul McStay, McClair, McLeod, McGarvey (McInally, 35).

• Celtic substitute Allan McInally was dismissed after 72 minutes.

Match background
• Neither Rapid nor Celtic played in the UEFA Cup group stage.

• Rapid have lost their last three European fixtures, while a 3-0 loss to Tel-Aviv on Matchday 4 ended a five-game winning streak at home in UEFA club competition.

• Celtic ended a 22-game wait for a European away win when they beat FC Dinamo Moskva 2-0 in this season's UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, but have not won in three games on their travels since.

• Rapid have won their last three home games against Scottish sides since a 2-0 loss to Rangers FC in their first, a European Champion Clubs' Cup game on 8 December 1964.

• All three of Celtic's previous games in Austria have ended in defeat.

Team facts
• Rapid coach Pacult was a prolific scorer for his current club, along with FC Tirol Innsbruck and TSV 1860 München, during a playing career in which he also won 24 caps for Austria. He has been Rapid coach since 2006, rejoining the club following spells in charge of 1860, FC Kärnten and 1. FC Dynamo Dresden.

• Pacult's goal against Celtic was his first in European competition.

• Celtic's English coach Tony Mowbray also represented his current club as a player (1991-95) between spells with Middlesbrough FC and Ipswich Town FC. Since hanging up his boots, the former defender has managed Ipswich, Hibernian FC and West Bromwich Albion FC, replacing Gordon Strachan as Hoops boss this summer.

• Rapid's Finnish international Markus Heikkinen has experience of Scottish football, having represented Celtic's Premier League rivals Aberdeen FC from 2003-05, where he earned a reputation as a tough-tackling, diligent defensive player.

• AFC Ajax striker Luis Suárez and Rapid captain Steffen Hofmann were fouled more than any other players in the first five matchdays, 19 times each.