Hartson wary of wounded beast Bayern

John Hartson insists there's never a good time to be playing Bayern Munich despite the Germans' injury problems for the Champions League match with Celtic.

Ottmar Hitzfeld's side have Sebastian Deisler, Alexander Zickler and Jens Jeremies definitely out while Michael Ballack, Willy Sagnol, Claudio Pizarro, Ze Roberto and Bastian Schweinsteiger are struggling for fitness.

Bayern crashed to a 3-2 defeat to Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday after conceding two late goals.

But Hoops striker Hartson warned that Hitzfeld's superstars will be as dangerous as ever on home territory despite the doubts.

"I never knew personally that they had so many injury problems," admitted Hartson. "But I would imagine they have got a very strong squad.

"There's never a good time to be playing Bayern Munich because they are such a good side, but if they have got a few injuries, that's in our favour."

Hartson, however, is confident last season's Uefa Cup finalists will pose their own threat.

The striker added: "We've got players in the side who can score goals at the highest level.

"With the way we play and the delivery we have from people like Alan Thompson and Stilian Petrov in dead-ball situations we will always be a threat.

"We proved that last season. When we had to go and score at certain places where we knew defences would be tight, we came up with the goods.

"We managed to nick goals at vital times when they counted for two and managed to get through once or twice, so hopefully we can do it again."

But the Wales international has assured fans their hopes of qualifying from Group A will not be dead if they were to start with defeat tonight.

"We don't have to really go chasing anything," he added. "There's no desperate measures to get a result because it's the first game.

"We obviously want to start off with a good result like a draw or a win, but because it's a group stage you have got a chance to claw it back in other games.

"When it's home and away then you have to go and dig out a result and the pressure's on a bit more.

"With these group stages it's not a devastating result if we lose because we have another five games to try and claw it back."