Very late now I know, but Friday’s UEFA Cup draw for the knock-out phase matched Villa with the only team with a 100% record in the group stage: CSKA Moscow.  By finishing the group stage in 3rd place we also have to play the first leg at VP.  Gulp!!

The draw for the Round of 16 took place immediately afterward and should we get past Moscow we’ll be meeting the winner of Shakhtar Donetsk & Tottenham!!

You can bemoan MON’s strategy of resting key players and missing the opportunity to win the group if you like, but it was a draw and anything could have happened.  For what it’s worth, here’s the full draw showing who will meet who in the next round:-

• Werder Bremen / Milan vs Olympiacos / Saint-Étienne
• Aston Villa / CSKA Moscow vs Shakhtar Donetsk / Tottenham Hotspur
• Lech Poznań / Udinese vs Zenit St. Petersburg / Stuttgart
• Paris Saint-Germain / Wolfsburg vs Braga / Standard Liège
• Dynamo Kyiv / Valencia vs Sampdoria / Metalist Kharkiv
• Copenhagen / Manchester City vs Aalborg BK / Deportivo
• Marseille / Twente vs Fiorentina / Ajax
• NEC / Hamburg vs Bordeaux / Galatasaray

So group winners Hamburg will face NEC and then the winner of Bordeaux vs Galatasaray. Runners-up Ajax play last year’s semi-finalist Fiorentina and should they win they’ll play the victor from the Marseille vs Twente match. Nothing easy about that, although they did earn the advantage of playing the second leg games at home.

So did MON do the right thing resting those key players?? Personally, I think he did. I don’t think I’d be feeling much more confident with the draw Hamburg & Ajax got and the performance from some of the players who made the trip to Hamburg will really help shape his strategy for the club going forward. Clearly there are a handful of players who are unlikely to be able to make the required contribution to Aston Villa in the coming seasons. No names required!!