Aston Villa 2 - 1 Rapid Vienna (agg 2 - 2)

Aston Villa 2 - 1 Rapid Vienna (agg 2 - 2)

by tuan.blogger.hettien ~ Thursday, August 27, 2009

Aston Villa were denied a place in the Uefa Europa League after Rapid Vienna knocked them out of the competition on the away-goals rule.

Ashley Young twice won first-half penalties and although his first effort was saved, James Milner levelled the aggregate scores with the second.

John Carew extended Villa's lead with a low strike early in the second half.

But minutes after Nikica Jelavic had missed from six yards, the Croatian scored the decisive goal from 10 yards.

Villa had 15 minutes left to find the goal that would give them a 3-2 aggregate win but it was the visiting team who looked the most likely to score again, with the heavily involved Jelavic somehow failing to convert another good opportunity.

The result means Martin O'Neill's team, who defeated Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League on Monday, miss out on Friday's draw for the inaugural Europa League.

The attendance suggested Villa's exit will not weigh too heavily on the club's supporters. The match was played in front of a half empty Villa Park but the Vienna fans, many waving their shirts around rather than wearing them, made plenty of noise throughout.


The away fans had relatively little to encourage them during a low-key opening to the tie, although Stefan Hoffmann went close with a curling free-kick.

It took Villa a while to threaten, although Milner should have produced a more telling cross after breaking down the right with eight minutes gone. In plenty of space, the midfielder blasted his cross beyond a completely unmarked Emile Heskey.

Villa only sporadically threatened, but the home team won their first penalty following a run of tremendous determination by the increasingly influential Young.

The winger was brought down outside the Vienna area but regained his feet as the referee played an advantage and surged into the box, where he was fouled was Markus Heikkinen.

Helge Payer saved Young's disappointing penalty with a dive to his right but could do nothing to stop Milner's crisp spot kick high to his left after 38 minutes.

The second spot kick followed another surging run into the Vienna area by Young, although there did not appear to be much contact with Andreas Dober.

Vienna rallied either side of the break and almost equalised through Hoffmann but his crisp strike was brilliantly headed off the line by Carlos Cuellar. The clearance was made even more impressive by the fact Hoffman's strike took a slight deflection on its way to goal.

But the home team took the lead in the tie when Carew, making his first appearance of the season, cut in from the right, wrong footed his marker with a crisp turn and drilled a low strike beyond Payer.


Rapid Vienna players celebrate their famous result
Vienna needed only an away goal to regain the advantage and introduced 6ft 7in striker Stefan Maierhofer, who soon had the ball in the net but saw his effort ruled out for a foul on keeper Bradley Guzan.

Villa had opportunities to kill off the tie - and Milner should have slotted home but missed the target after Payer parried a shot across goal from Young.

Vienna continued to press and should have equalised through Jelavic after Guzan parried a spectacular overhead kick from Maierhofer into the Croatian's path.

Jelavic was unmarked six yards from goal but missed the target. His profligacy went unpunished, however, as he did convert another gilt-edged chance with 13 minutes left.

Another Guzan parry fell invitingly and this time Jelavic slotted home into the bottom corner from 10 yards.

Villa rallied, with Fabian Delph going close with a curling shot and Heskey narrowly stabbing over after a clever near-post run, but the final clear opening of the tie fell to Vienna.

Jelavic got the ball stuck under his foot yards from goal and saw his two efforts blocked by Guzan. The second ran invitingly to Hoffmann, who blazed over from 14 yards