Rapid Vienna have issued an official apology to Andreas Weimann and Aston Villa after their fans’ deplorable behaviour during Thursday’s Europa League match, showering him with abuse and drinks as he was stretchered off, clearly in a state of distress.
One of the things I love about being back in Europe, even if it’s just the Europa League, is the exposure to a different set of footballing cultures. I think we were all blown away by the experience in Vienna
Ardhe Nuhiu 32′ | Barry Bannan 11′
YouTube Video
Job done I think. Just. An away goal could be vital and we learned an awful lot in what turned into a less than an entertaining game after a promising opening 20 minutes or so. Barry Bannan opened the scoring, but Ardhe Nuhiu is being credited with the equaliser with what must be the faintest of touches, fooling Brad Guzan during the first half.
It started extremely brightly, Rapid struggling to cope with the pace and vigour of
It’s probably fair to say that I underestimated Rapid in last year’s preview, the final sentence in particular was way off the mark. However, they had been struggling up to that point in their season and, having made the group stage, they surprised one or two people in the Europa League too.
They beat Hamburg 3-0 at home in their first group game and then managed a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park. From there, they lost their
While Stephen Ireland was busy signing his Aston Villa contract, most of his new teammates were travelling to Austria for tomorrow’s Europa League play-off first leg encounter with Rapid Vienna. I think the 20 man squad (16 1st teamers + 4 reserves) caused a few sharp intakes of breath among some Villa fans:-
Goalkeepers
Defenders
Midfielders
Forwards
Brad Friedel
Stephen Warnock
Stewart Downing
Nathan Delfouneso
Brad Guzan
Curtis Davies
Marc Albrighton
Emile Heskey
Elliot Parish
Habib Beye
Nigel Reo-Coker
Andreas Weimann
Eric Lichaj
Isaiah Osbourne
James Collins
Shane Lowry
Barry Bannan
Ciaran Clark
Jonathan Hogg
Nathan Baker
Of the 12 members of the first
Villa got off to the worst of starts in Vienna tonight. 15 seconds. That’s all it took for Rapid Vienna to take the lead.
From kick off they ran into Reo-Coker in front of the back four forcing the ball to be spread out to their left. The ball was whipped in early and it fell neatly on to the head of Jelavic to nod in. I say ‘fell neatly’ mainly because Curtis Davies was flat on
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.
Aston Villa have just announced a 22-man squad to travel to Austria for Thursday’s Europa League tie against Rapid Vienna. Interesting to note that there’s no place for Marlon Harewood, even though I believe we could have taken up to 25 players.
Goalkeepers
Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Andy Marshall
Defenders
Curtis Davies, Carlos Cuellar, Nicky Shorey, Habib Beye, Eric Lichaj, Ciaran Clark, Shane Lowry
Midfielders
Steve Sidwell, Ashley Young, James Milner, Marc Albrighton, Fabian Delph, Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker, Craig Gardner
Forwards
John Carew, Gabby Agbonlahor, Nathan