This time last year I seem to remember a lot of us fans scouring the squad list announcement for clues and homing in on the vacant number 8 spot. This time it’s Laursen’s number 5, but let’s face it, everyone knows we need to find a top notch replacement for Laursen!
Just as interesting, Stewart Downing takes whatshisface’s old number 6.
And in my best DJ voice:- Marc Albrighton is this week’s highest climber, moving up from 45 to number 12!!
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Brad
I was just flipping through my Tweets a little earlier and this one from the Birmingham Mail caught my eye:-
Mmmm, that doesn’t sound very good, does it? That sounds very much like the Olympic Organising Committee is kicking Villa Park to the curb for some reason, no? Whatever could be the problem?
Surprise, surprise, the headline doesn’t quite match the story. Second and third paragraphs (which is really where all tabloid articles start, the first paragraph
Separated at birth – Emile Heskey and Wallace:-
Aston Villa have been drawn against Rapid Vienna for the Fourth Round Europa League and will play the second leg at Villa Park.
Rapid entered the competition the Second Qualifying Round and have beaten Vllaznia from Albania 8-0 (agg.) & APOP of Cyprus 4-3 (agg. AET). They qualified for the tournament by finishing runner-up to Red Bull Salzburg in last year’s Austrian Bundesliga.
Before I list the draw in full, I should correct something I said in an earlier post.
Here are all 76 teams entered in today’s Europa League Fourth Qualifying Round split into their seeded & unseeded groups. Villa are seeded and will be drawn against one of the teams from the bottom, unseeded group.
The Play Off Round will be played over two legs, home and away, to be held on 20th & 27th August 2009.
Seeded teams
Werder Bremen (Ger)
Lille OSC (Fra)
Aston Villa (Eng)
Villarreal (Esp)
Everton (Eng)
Athletic Bilbao (Esp)
AS Roma (Ita)
Club Brugge (Bel)
Partizan Belgrade (Srb)
PSV Eindhoven (Ned)
Heerenveen (Ned)
Hapoel
The draw for the fourth and final round of qualification for the UEFA Europa League will be made on Friday and it will define Villa’s first action in the tournament. UEFA competitions can often seem pretty complicated at first glance, but I find that they’re a lot like those old 3D magic eye images in that if you stare at them long enough, eventually they just fall into place.
I don’t want to count our chickens, but I’m going to
OK, the Peace Cup is old news now, but I wanted to bring you the organiser’s productions of the semi-final and final and it will also give me a chance to have a whine about something that gets on my nerves.
I have to warn you, these videos feature lots of people talking about what a great concept the Peace Cup is and how well organised it was – complete with empty seats as far as the eye can see!!
It might only be pre-season, it might only be the Peace Cup, but damn it feels good to win something, doesn’t it?! Winning can be a habit and there’s no better time to start this particular habit than in pre-season.
Simply taking part in this tournament would have no great effect on Villa’s season beyond being a good bonding exercise in the sun. But winning it, and winning it in the manner that they did, could well be the
Aston Villa have won the 2009 Peace Cup on penalties. A full review to follow.
It may only be pre-season, but it’s great to see some silverware!!!