UEFA Europa League, Match Preview: Aston Villa versus Rapid Wien
Aston Villa, who finished sixth in last years English Premier League are set to take on Rapid Wien at the Villa Park, in the second leg of their Europa League qualification playoff. The first leg which was held in Austria, at Rapid’s home stadium ended in a one all draw. Therefore, this tie will be Aston Villa’s to lose given their away goal. However, recently the Birmingham club has been going through some turbulent times.
Villa suffered a heavy six goal defeat at the hands of Newcastle United in their last English Premier League match. That fact coupled with the uncertain managerial situation at the club has created havoc in the Aston Villa ranks. In the summer, Martin O’Neill left Aston Villa due to financial differences between him and the club’s administrative hierarchy. This has prompted an ongoing managerial search for Aston Villa. Nonetheless the English club is currently under Kevin MacDonald’s control, who is the caretaker manager at the moment. Kevin previously managed Villa’s reserve team side.
On the weekend, Kevin admitted that he had made some crucial mistakes in his team selection for the match against Newcastle in the English Premier League. The Scotsman will be looking to learn from his past faults and is expected to field a strong team for the second leg tie against Rapid Wien from Austria. MacDonald is without several players for the Europa league clash. Villa lately parted ways with their most talented player, James Milner as the English international winger was a subject of a massive Manchester City bid.
In overall terms, Villa’s squad has been termed by several experts as too weak to compete in all the competitions that come around over the course of a complete club football season. After playing several youngsters at the weekend, Aston Villa will be looking towards experienced individuals like Carew and Reo Coker to pull them through the second leg to an ultimate win. There will be excessive pressure on MacDonald as well for the tie as Europa league brings in a lot of financial revenue for a club like Aston Villa. This revenue gathers extra importance due to the bad monetary situation at the club with regard to their wages and turnover.
Alternatively, Villa’s opponents Rapid Wien, who are commonly known as Rapid Vienna, have a tough job on their hands as they need to score without reply to keep their chances of progression to the group stage alive. Vienna are underdogs in this tie against Villa’s powerful starting eleven and therefore any triumph for them in this tie will be considered a monumental victory for the men from Austria. It is quite likely that Rapid will approach the match with their 5-3-2 formation while Villa will go with their conventional 4-4-2 setup with two strikers upfront.
The key men during the match for Aston Villa will be Ashley Young followed by Gabriel Agbonlahor. The latter of the two is making a comeback after a frustrating summer which was plagued with injuries. He will be looking to get on the score sheet as soon as possible for the Villains. A match defining battle can be between James Collins and Vienna’s striker Atdhe Nuhiu. Atdhe is known be quite skilful when it comes to aerial challenges so Villa’s defence will have its work cut out for them.
Vienna approach this match with a better run of form than Aston Villa, as the Austrian giants have gathered four wins and a draw out of their last five matches. Alternatively, Villa have just managed two wins, two draws and a loss out of their last five matches. Aston Villa are favourites to win the match but the encounter is anticipated to be a low scoring one, given the lack of attacking talent on both the sides.
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