Possible Europa League opponents
On VillaTalk, regular stato Levi Ramsey has posted the possible combinations for our European draw and it does look tasty for the qualification and possible group opponents.
The World Cup is still underway, but I figured I’d post a look at possible EL opponents and seeding.
Villa enters the competition in the playoff (4th qualifying) round and is assured of being seeded, by virtue of a coefficient of 25.871.
Possible opponents in that round include: Red Star Belgrade, Anorthosis Famagusta, Grasshoppers Zurich, Rapid Vienna, APOEL Nicosia, Montpellier, Trabzonspor, Wisla Krakow, Motherwell, Hibernian, Dundee United, Omonia Nicosia, AIK Stockholm, Bohemians.
Should Villa advance to the group stage, it is possible (if there’s enough upsets in the CL qualifying) for Villa to fall as low as the fourth pot. If there are no upsets affecting the seeding for this round, then the possible group stage opponents would be:
Pot 1 – Atletico Madrid, Porto, CSKA Moscow, PSV, Juventus, Sporting Lisbon, Olympiakos, Fenerbahce, Stuttgart, AZ Alkmaar, Steaua Bucharest
Pot 2 – Lille, Galatasaray, Dinamo Kiev, Bayer Leverkusen, PSG, Sporting Braga, Celtic, Brugge, Palermo, Getafe, Besiktas
Pot 4 – Austria Wien, Feyenoord, Real Mallorca, Litex Lovech, CSKA Sofia, OB Odense, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Napoli, Dortmund, Dinamo Zagreb, Partizan, BATE Borisov
With our recent record in Europe none of these opponents would be easy and a lot will obviously depend if we can get players in by the deadline. the big question is how we would rotate with the likes of The Fonz, Clark and Albrighton desperate to play.
There is a reason we have to be 4th – no Europa League
In the old days the Europa League meant something. But back then it was the UEFA cup it offered a straight forward knock out competition, limited number of rounds and excitement each round and for Villa knock outs on away goals !
The thing is with CL it gives you the cash to build a squad to basically have another half season of games if you get to the final, the Europa League does not do that and thus teams get really stretched. Yes someone may say, look at Fulham but they do not play their away games anyway ! Seriously though they have done well but had few injuries this season but their league form has stuttered, for teams like us hoping to get into the higher levels in the league it is simply a distraction we do not need.
I have to day I have been totally consistent here and always hated the competition, I supported fully the decision to pull out of the Moscow game because getting 4th is that vital. The Europa league is not the FA or even Carling cup people care about those competitions they do not about the Europa league. I mean say we qualified for it next season we may have 6PM kick offs at Villa Park, can you imagine the attendance for that ?
UEFA have totally ruined their own competition by making it Chumps League lite because UEFA do not need a competition that is different from the CL but subservient to it.
Wished someone would put it to death.
Away goals yet again – Villa 2 Vienna 1
So Rapid Vienna go on the same list as Tranzonspor, Athletico Madrid, Celta Vigo etc.
For the first 60 minutes I thought we were great, we probed well, restricted Vienna to long shots and missed a pen, scored another, a good goal from Carew and then …
Milner’s miss
If he had scored it would have been all over but that miss was the turning point of the game after that Vienna pressed and we could not respod and the inevitable goal came. I like Milner but that was awful and clearly cost us, grrrrr …..
Plenty of positives though though Cuellar once again had good game, Shorey showed what competition does and Delph I thought was fantastic but MON made one glaring error, at 60 mins or so Delph tired and NRC should have come on.
We have to learn how to close games out at home
Aston Villa vs Vienna Preview – Europa League
After the the game on Monday, confidence amongst the fans and players should be at it’s highest for months.
We need a morale boosting home leg and despite my dislike for the competition we need to get through to the league stage, again for the confidence factor and the players knowing we have something worth fighting for.
I am not confident on what team and formation MON will pick. We know that Guzan will play, Ash may be out after his injury by the dirty scouser Carragher. I woudl imagine though the rest of the team will be the same and I think it will be an exciting game.
The predicted crowd seems to be around 25,000 which is not too bad and the atmopshere should be ‘interesting’.
Lets hope for an electric European night.
Rapid Vienna vs Aston Villa – 1-0 – Full Time
20:06 – Full time 1-0 defeat and I think we played well without creating anything of note
19:52 – even game now and Lowry on for Davies for his full debut
19:40 – Good save by guzan from a breakaway
19:38 – Pressure pilling on the pressure now, Young just over from a free kick
19:33 – Villa really have dominated now and Gabby breaks free and then a poor cross, the Davies misses after a good cross by Young
19:27 – Much of the same again and Beye picks up a booking and Gabby on for Gardner
19:17 – 2nd Half Starts
19:02 – HALF TIME – One down but I thought we have done OK to be honest with no really creatig a chance. Davies has to be pulled out, I rate him but he is doing himself no good by playing
18:56 – Sidwell booked, Ref giving us nothing
18:53 – After a good run Heskey drags a shot wide
18:41 – Pretty much the same pattern of largely Villa posession but nothing creative
18:29 – Apart from the disaster goal a decent start
18:16 – what the hell was that ?? Vienna goal after 15 secs, Davies slipped to let in a free header
A vital game tonight after the disaster of Wigan and news that John carew pulled out with a Virus (as if)
so team in my favoured 4-5-1 is
Guzan, Beye, Davies, Cuellar, Shorey, Milner, Gardner, Sidwell, Reo-Coker (c), Young, Heskey. Subs: Friedel, Agbonlahor, Albrighton, Delfouneso, Delph, Petrov, Lowry.
Good team that one and expect a positive result
Match Stream : http://www.iraqgoals.net/game1617.html
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