Gary Gardner scored all three goals in a comprehensive victory over Ajax U19s in the Young Lions’ final group stage match of the NextGen Series at Villa Park tonight, guaranteeing a place in the quarter finals next year.
Ajax, who are now bumped down to second place in the group, have one final game; Rosenborg at home on November 29th. If Ajax fail to win in Amsterdam, Villa will win the group, earning home advantage for the next round, and will
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This is not an attempt to absolve anyone of any blame for the unacceptable performance at White Hart Lane last night, but it’s become painfully obvious to me in the last 18 months or so that in the fans’ eyes it’s players that win games… and managers that lose them.
Let me give you an example:
Towards the end of last season, in what would be Gerard Houllier’s final game on the sidelines, we took on the hapless West Ham at Upton
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Emmanuel Adebayor helped himself to a first half brace, but should have had at least a hat-trick during a game that Tottenham barely had to break a sweat to dominate. In fairness, such was the gulf in quality, we should consider ourselves fortunate to have left with the score only 2-0.
There were rumours before kick off that Alex McLeish intended to field Alan Hutton as a right midfielder and Carlos Cuellar behind him at right back to deal with the
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Remember the Premier League? Yeah, we’re finally back in action tonight for our first league game under the floodlights of 2011/12. Returning to White Hart Lane also happens to be significant for Alex McLeish, but that’s not something we wish to dwell on.
Truth is, coming back from North London with a point has generally been a decent result for us in the past, you’ll do well to find many Villa fans optimistic about grabbing something tonight. Football’s not always predictable
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The NextGen Series has announced the brackets for the quarter finals on their Twitter feed and it sets up a possible trip to Barcelona for our Young Lions. Due to domestic fixtures, the quarters finals will be played over just one leg with each of the group winners earning the advantage of playing at home:
QF1:
Group 1 Winner
vs
Group 3 Runner-up
QF2:
Group 2 Winner
vs
Group 4 Runner-up
QF3:
Group 3 Winner
vs
Group 1 Runner-up
QF4:
Group 4 Winner
vs
Group 2 Runner-up
Group 2 has already been wrapped up with Sporting winning
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Fenerbahce recorded their first win in the NextGen Series with a 1-0 victory over visiting Rosenborg today, leaving our own U19s in a very strong position to qualify for the next round.
With just two Group 3 games remaining, the table now looks like this:
Team
P
W
L
D
F
A
GD
PTS
Ajax
4
3
0
1
9
2
7
10
Aston Villa
5
3
2
0
12
7
5
9
Rosenborg
5
2
3
0
9
11
-2
6
Fenerbahce
6
1
4
1
5
15
-10
4
Ajax come to Villa Park on November 22nd before hosting Rosenborg themselves on November 29th.
Since the fixtures are not as structured as the Champions League, the competition NextGen aims to emulate, the group stage won’t be
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The Euro 2012 play-offs are over and we now know all 16 teams who will be competing in Poland and Ukraine next summer. Barring any injury issues, there will definitely be some Villa interest as the Irish saw out their considerable advantage from the first leg against Estonia to book their place in the finals with a 1-1 draw in Dublin.
Just try to stop Shay Given and Richard Dunne getting on that plane.
The draw for the groups will take place
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Extended highlights from the U19s disappointing NextGen Series loss in Norway last week. Derrick Williams and Daniel Johnson were on the scoresheet for Villa, but two goals from Ole Kristian Selnæs and one from Mushaga Bakenga sealed the victory for the home side.
[Also available here]
I mentioned last week that future Villan Enda Stevens had been nominated for the 2011 PFAI Player of the Year Award and I’m pleased to let you know that he was named the winner in Dublin last night. Not only that, but Richard Dunne also scooped the Irish Overseas Player of the Year.
Dunne and Shay Given are currently with the Irish national side midway through their two-legged play-off tie against Estonia for a place in Euro 2012. Estonia head to
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