Neither side can qualify from Group C and consequently the Hoops boss plans to rest some players ahead of Sunday's Clydesdale Bank Premier League trip to Hearts.

Mowbray, speaking at Austria's national stadium before his players went out to train in freezing conditions, rebuffed the suggestion he would gladly have foregone the interruption.

He said: "No, no. It's the next game. We have to respect the tournament we are playing in.

"We are here to give a good account of ourselves, to try and win the game and keep the confidence going into Sunday.

"I have picked the team in my mind. I know what the starting team will be unless there is an injury in training.

"And, if we do decide to go down that route (resting players), we expect a professional performance from the team.

"We are here to win the football match, to be positive and we are looking forward to it.

"There will be a decent crowd at the stadium, I hear, with a great atmosphere, and it will be a test for the players, but one we are looking forward to.

"If one or two of them get a chance tomorrow night they are not playing for their futures, they are trying to put themselves to the forefront of my mind for when I pick my next team."

Mowbray insisted a "strange" group may well have ended in different circumstances if only one of the several chances missed in November's goalless draw against Hamburg in Germany had been taken.

"It has been a strange one when you analyse all the results in the section," the former West Brom boss said.

"Rapid beat Hamburg 3-0 on the opening day and then lost their last home game 3-0 to Hapoel (Tel Aviv).

"So it's been a strange set of results throughout the group. We think every game we have played in has been very tight.

"As the section unfolded we always thought we had the opportunities to pick up the points but ultimately we left it too late.

"It has been the situation where we have missed opportunities to pick up points.

"A goal out of one of the three or four clear-cut chances we had in Hamburg and we would have been sitting here hoping to qualify out of the group.

"But it wasn't to be and the results are in front of us.

"So we finish off the group tomorrow night and then get on with our season."