This is it folks. The last friendly warm-up game before the new Premiership season kicks off on August 15th when Wigan Athletic visit Villa Park. Fiorentina are a good side to finish pre-season against. They’ll provide decent opposition and allow Martin O’Neill to get a good feel for how his men can perform against both Wigan and Villa’s second competitive opponent of the season; Rapid Vienna.
Fiorentina will be playing in the Champions League this season courtesy of
This game should interest me far more than it does since Oxford is actually my old home town. But strictly speaking, this game should be titled Oxford Utd vs Aston Villa XI, meaning who knows what sort of side Villa will send down to the Kassam. MON had apparently promised a decent strength side, but with the heroics of 4 games in a little over a week in Spain, including the extra-time final, I doubt he’ll be sending
Aston Villa will face European giants Juventus in the Peace Cup 2009 Final on Sunday August 2nd in Seville. The game will be held in the 57,619 seat Olympic Stadium which also hosted the opening game between Sevilla and Juventus, attracting 15,000 spectators. If the locals couldn’t be tempted to see their home team play Juventus then I’m not holding my breath about them coming out to see an English team take on the Italians. Real Madrid
Aston Villa may have ridden their luck over the two games so far in the Peace Cup, but we have the semi-final line up the majority would have predicted before this tournament got going – Juventus vs Real Madrid & Porto vs Aston Villa. In normal circumstances, a pretty tasty proposition. During pre-season, who knows? According to O’Neill, the lads were pretty thrilled with their come back win over Atlante and they certainly had to work hard
Atlante are a Mexican Primera División team who now play in Cancún after relocating from Mexico City a couple of years ago. They’re a late addition to the Peace Cup tournament, replacing Celtic, and it’s actually quite odd that they were able to attend; Mexico’s Primera División kicked off on July 24th.
The Mexican league operates a two championship per season “Apertura” & “Clausura” system popular in Latin America. Atlante finished 14th in the last Causura, but 3rd in
Malaga finished 8th in last season’s La Liga, which isn’t a bad achievement considering it was their first season back after a two year spell in the Segunda División. Coincidentally, their stadium, La Rosaleda, has the 8th largest capacity in the Spanish top flight. Not important, but a little factoid for you all the same.
Nestled in the heart of the Costa Del Sol, Malaga enjoy the support of the local ex-pat community, so maybe Villa’s visit will split the loyalties
A look back at the games and signings from pre-season 2008/09 and an overview of pre-season 2009/10.
Everton fail to close the gap behind us. Man Utd & Chelsea fail to extend their lead. Our run of bad form has to come to an end sometime. Can this be the game that we turn it all around?? A massive, massive game at Anfield for sure.
European competition returns and it’s getting serious now. CSKA Moscow, the team with the best record in the group stages, comes to Villa Park tonight, but will the players and staff be more concerned with Chelsea’s visit on Saturday?