We were required to submit our Europa League squad for the play off round by midnight Monday and while I’ve waited for that information to filter through, part of me has wondered whether discussions about that squad could have been a catalyst for Martin O’Neill walking out.
I don’t know whether that was the case, I don’t know whether it was rushed through after MON walked, but at the moment it appears that Nathan Delfouneso and Marc Albrighton have not been
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I can’t claim it was a 37 to 1 shot since there were only six possible opponents once the groups had been created. However, although there was probably a little geography involved in the grouping procedure, it could easily have been Austria Vienna, not Rapid, in the group for instance, I don’t know what the chances were of Rapid being thrown into the same pot as Villa.
Maybe not quite lightning striking twice, but the odds of this being
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The full draw for the UEFA Europa League Play Off Round with the ties being played on 19th and 26th of August:-
(Teams will be added below as drawn after 12.30pm – you will need to refresh the page to see the latest)
You can also watch the draw live here. Teams on the left will play at home in the first leg.
Aston Villa have been drawn against Rapid Vienna Again!!
1
Paris Saint-Germain FC (FRA)
vs
Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)
2
Bayer 04 Leverkusen (GER)
vs
SC Tavriya Simferopol
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Following on from the preview yesterday, UEFA have now divided the 74 teams into 7 pots and Rapid Vienna have been placed in Group 6 along with Aston Villa, so there’s now a 1 in 6 chance of a rematch.
The 6 unseeded sides that we can be drawn against in Group 6 are:-
SK Rapid Wien (AUT)
FC Sibir Novosibirsk (RUS)
CS Marítimo (POR)
ŠK Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
HJK Helsinki (FIN)
The New Saints FC (WAL)
The 7 Pots in full:-
Seeded
Unseeded
Group 1
PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS)
Anorthosis Famagusta FC
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Almost all of the final Europa League 3rd qualifying round games are coming to a close and by the end of the night we’ll know the 35 teams joining us in tomorrow’s draw for the play-off round ahead of the group stage.
A few ties have been decided already, among them Rapid Vienna, who beat PFC Beroe Stara Zagora from Bulgaria 4-1 on aggregate. So, is it possible that we could get a rematch against our opponents from the same
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Judging by the early responses to the Season Expectation Survey, I may be preaching to the choir here, but I’m going to state my case for hoping Aston Villa have a good craic at the Europa League this season regardless. (I apologise unreservedly for the atrocious pun. Read on if it’s not obvious.)
Not everyone holds the second tier European competition in such high regard though, I may have seen it referred to as the “Europa LDV Vans Cup”
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You’ve probably already seen the Premiership fixtures for 2010/11 and are hopefully aware that due to a particularly anachronistic and egregious piece of copyright law, I can’t just publish the fixture list here. I’ve no intention of coughing up the £266 plus VAT for the Villa list and absolutely no intention of forking out the £3,931 plus VAT for the full list, so I’ll just pick out some highlights and intertwine the European fixtures which are not protected by
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The curtain fell on a fascinating La Liga season this past weekend with Barcelona crowned champions in triumphant style, but Madrid running them a close second. In fact, Real Madrid have earned more points this season than any team in La Liga history… except one… Barcelona 2009/10.
I know some people are fond of suggesting that the three 6th place finishes mean Aston Villa have not progressed, despite the year-on-year improvement in performance over the last 4 years, and love
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We’re almost there then, the final day of the season with all 10 games played simultaneously – kick off is at 4pm on Sunday.
Arsenal (3rd) v Fulham (12th)
Aston Villa (6th) v Blackburn (11th)
Bolton (14th) v Birmingham (9th)
Burnley (19th) v Tottenham (4th)
Chelsea (1st) v Wigan (15th)
Everton (8th) v Portsmouth (20th)
Hull (18th) v Liverpool (7th)
Man Utd (2nd) v Stoke (10th)
West Ham (17th) v Man City (5th)
Wolves (16th) v Sunderland (13th)
It goes without saying that most eyes will be on Stamford Bridge and
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