Aston Villa crash out of Europa League, but Manchester City ease through
Aston Villa have been knocked out of the Europa League at the same early stage as last season, and by the same opponents.
Rapid Vienna won 3-2 at Villa Park tonight, sealing a 4-3 aggregate success, a result that follows on from their away goals win at the same ground in the playoff round last season.
All had been looking good for Villa when Gabriel Agbonlahor turned in an Ashley Young cross midway through the first half, but the forward was forced off with an injury soon after, and watched on in horror as history repeated itself for Rapid in the second half.
Atdhe Nuhiu pulled the scores level both on the night and on aggregate with a thumping header just after the break, but Stiliyan Petrov missed a glorious opportunity to put Villa in front when his penalty was saved by Raimund Hedl, with Emile Heskey missing a glorious chance from the rebound.
However, all looked good for Villa when Heskey deflected in Habib Beye’s shot to put the hosts 3-2 up on aggregate with only 13 minutes left, only for two goals in three minutes from Mario Sonnleitner and substitute Rene Gartler to break Villa hearts, and send Rapid’s fans wild at Villa Park, again.
It was a whole lot calmer at Eastlands though, where Manchester City eased past FC Timişoara 2-0 on the night and 3-0 on aggregate.
Goals either side of half time from Shaun Wright-Phillips and Dedryck Boyata sealed a comfortable victory, on a night when City could and should have scored more.
Earlier, Liverpool came back from a goal down to beat Trabzonspor 2-1 in Turkey, sealing a 3-1 aggregate triumph. A Giray Kacar own goal and a Dirk Kuyt strike gave the Reds the win in the final eight minutes.
Elsewhere, it was a shocking night for Celtic, who threw away a 2-0 first leg lead to lose 4-0 to FC Utrecht in Holland and bow out 4-2 on aggregate. Ricky van Wolfswinkel scored a hat-trick for the hosts, with Barry Maguire adding a fourth.
Dundee United bowed out 2-1 on aggregate in Athens despite a spirited 1-1 away draw with AEK. Jon Daly struck for the Scottish side, with ex-Portsmouth midfielder Papa Bouba Diop finding the net for AEK, while Motherwell lost 1-0 at home to Odense to confirm a 3-1 aggregate exit, and a spirited TNS drew 2-2 with CSKA Sofia, losing 5-2 on aggregate. Matthew Williams and Steve Evans scored the Welsh side’s goals.
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