If you’ve seen the squad that Martin O’Neill is taking to Austria then you know that he’s taking this tie seriously. Then again, when I looked at who he left out, this squad must have practically picked itself. Luke Young, Bouma, Downing, Harewood are all injured and Salifou has been sick for a while.

Obviously we’re all looking for both a performance and result from this game, it’s important that the team bounce back from the opening day debacle. In fact, that game against Wigan looks even worse tonight after the Lactics were beaten at home by Wolves. Some pride and confidence definitely needs to be restored.

Interestingly, aside from centre back, MON pretty much has the choice of two recognised players for every position and it’s been a while since that could be achieved from a 22-man Aston Villa squad. And there isn’t a player among them that should give us much cause for concern should they be called upon at this level. Lichaj, Albrighton, Lowry and Clark all gave a great account of themselves during the Peace Cup – a couple of these guys surrounded by experience wouldn’t be an issue at all.

Turning to Rapid Vienna, they qualified for the competition by finishing second in the 10 team Austrian Bundesliga behind Red Bull Salzburg. The Austrian league is ranked 24th by UEFA and is allocated 4 European places each year – 1 Champions League and 3 Europa League. No surprises that Rapid Vienna qualify for Europe most seasons.

Rapid entered this year’s competition in the 2nd qualifying round and comfortably dispatched Albanian side Vllaznia 8-0 on aggregate. They won the right to host Villa by beating Serbia’s FK Vojvodina 5-3 on aggregate in round 3. It’s so much better earning the right to enter the tournament at this stage and not have to go to these far flung places!

As you’re probably aware, Villa are the seeded team and Vienna the unseeded side in this tie. To give you an idea of how the two sides are graded in comparison to other teams you may know; Villa are scored slightly higher than Athletic Bilbao and Partizan Belgrade, but slightly below Slavia Prague and AEK Athens. By contract, Rapid are considered mildly superior to Breda and Elfsborg, but not quite up to the standards of Dynamo Moscow or PAOK Thessalonki. Don’t worry, we got this.

Domestically, Rapid aren’t having the best of starts in the Bundesliga – they’re currently occupying 7th place with 4 points after 3 games. Their leading goal scorer is 22 year old Christopher Trimmel who was scouted and signed to the reserves last year. This is his first season in the senior side and he’s leading the team’s scoring after a 6 minute hat-trick against league whipping boys Kärnten.

A potentially familiar face for those who follow Scottish and/or Championship football is ex-Aberdeen and Luton Town player Markus Heikkinen. He’s usually a defensive midfielder and is probably the most experienced player in a team which is a healthy blend of youth and experience. There’s little international experience to speak of in the side, but Markus has 46 caps for his native Finland.

I hesitate to say that I can’t see any other result other than a win as that’s exactly what I said before the Wigan game. However, over 2 legs at least, it’s difficult to imagine how Rapid Vienna could have enough quality to prevent Villa qualifying for the Group Stage of the Europa League. So chillax, we’ve so got this.