UEFA Europa League Match Review: Aston Villa 2-3 vs. Rapid Vienna; Villa Knocked Out Due to 3-4 Aggregate
Villa took on Rapid Vienna in an exciting second leg of the two legged Europa League play-off match against Rapid Vienna. The match was held at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, which is Aston Villa’s home ground. After the first leg ended with a score-line of one all, Villa needed a goal-less draw or a win to progress through to the next round of the tournament.
On the other hand, their opponents Vienna had their work cut out after giving up an away goal in Austria in the first leg of the play-off tie. Rapid needed at least a two all scored draw or a win to seal their hopes of advancing to the group stages of the UEFA Europa League. Villa started with a very offensive line-up which included many of their starting eleven regulars. Kevin MacDonald, who is Villa’s temporary caretaker manager at the moment, deployed his team as a 4-4-2 with Heskey and Agbonlahor as the two strikers.
In the English club’s midfield, Ashley Young played on the wing while Petrov, Reo Coker, and Ireland took their central midfield duties. At the back, Brad Guzan played in goal for the Villains and in front of him, Davies and Collins played as the two centre-backs whereas Beye and Cuellar took up their wing back positions.
Conversely, Rapid Vienna opted for a formation which included the likes of Hedl, Dober, Sonnleitner, Soma, Katzer, Heikkenen, Pehlivan, Kavlak, Hoffmann, Sourer, and Nuhiu. The referee for this crucial qualification match between both the club sides was Eric Braamhaar. Aston Villa were favourites to win the match due to their home advantage coupled with the away goal that they managed to score against Vienna in Austria during the first leg of the play-off.
The match started off in nervous fashion as both the teams were afraid of letting their opponent take the lead. However, Villa forced the first free-kick of the match in the sixth minute but the ensuing delivery into the box came to nothing eventually. In the 9th minute of the match, Vienna also got their first free kick from some distance out, but they also couldn’t make the most of this golden opportunity to put the Villa defence under pressure.
Aston Villa soon started to increase the tempo of the match as Ireland and Ashley Young became more involved in their attacking build-ups. In the 22nd minute of the match, Villa’s striker Agbonlahor scored for the English club after he was played by through a fine cross by Young from the right side of midfield. Gabriel’s goal took the aggregate score line to 2-1 in favour of Aston Villa.
However, in the 40th minute of the match, Villa were forced into making their first substitution of the match as Agbonlahor had sustained an injury, Albrighton replaced the English international centre-forward on the field for Kevin MacDonald’s team. At the half time, Villa were leading the match with the score-line at one nil to the English Premier League side.
After the second half kicked off, Aston Villa were caught napping as their defender Habib Beye gave the ball away in the 52nd minute of the match near his own penalty area to Kavlak, who delivered an inch perfect ball on Nuhiu’s head. The striker duly obliged to bring his team back on level terms at Villa Park. Vienna’s goal brought the score-line to two all on aggregate.
After Vienna’s equalizer, Villa started looking nervous and tense on the ball. Their confidence quickly evaporated as the players realized that they were in a stiff battle for the group stages of the Europa League. Rapid took charge of the situation from thereon in and asserted their influence on the match.
Fortunes quickly turned for Villa again, as in the 72nd minute of the match, Emile Heskey was brought down in Rapid Vienna’s penalty area. As a result, the referee blew for a penalty kick for Villa and showed the first yellow card of the match to Mario Sonnleitner for his foul on the English striker. The spot kick was taken by Petrov, but the weak penalty by the Bulgarian was stopped by Rapid’s goalkeeper and the follow up rebound was wasted by Heskey.
In the 76th minute of the match, Heskey redeemed himself by getting Villa’s second goal from a close range finish after Beye’s volley, but Vienna crawled their way back into the match after Aston Villa’s defence displayed its shambolic self again. Mario Sonnleitner scored with a strong header for Vienna in the 79th minute of the match after Davies’ mistake in the Villa penalty area.
Rapid Vienna scored again in the 81st minute through their substitute Rene Gartler, who tapped in a cross from his teammate Christopher Trimmel. Gartler’s goal put Vienna in the driving seat as the men from Austria went in the lead by four goals to three on aggregate.
Despite Villa’s late offensive surge towards Rapid’s goal, the English side was knocked out of the Europa League as the match ended in a 2-3 defeat for them. As a consequence, Rapid Vienna progressed to the group stages of the Europa League due to their four goals to three win on aggregate.
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