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Game #4716

Aston Villa

Saturday, 27 July 2002

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Won

3rd Round

Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟩 🟥 🟩

Intertoto Cup 3rd Round

FC Zürich

Villa Park

Attendance: 18,349

Aston Villa

3-0

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FC Zürich

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Assist(s) | Peter Crouch | 32' | Paul Merson | 49' | Thomas Hitzlsperger | 77’ |

MATCH TIMELINE

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Saturday, 27 July 2002

⚽ | 32’ Goal, 1-0, Michael Boulding, Assist by Peter Crouch
🕒 | HT Aston Villa 1-0 FC Zürich
🔁 | 46’ Sub off, Michael Boulding, Sub on, Paul Merson
⚽ | 49’ Goal, 2-0 Marcus Allbäck, Assist by Paul Merson
🔁 | 71’ Sub off, Marcus Allbäck, Sub on, Stefan Moore 🟢
🟨 | 74’ Booking, Steve Staunton
⚽ | 77’ Goal, 3-0, Steve Staunton, Assist by Thomas Hitzlsperger
🕒 | FT Aston Villa 3-0 FC Zürich

Not reported

ON THIS DAY

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Saturday, 27 July 2002

  • Villa overturn a two goal deficit to progress in the Intertoto Cup once again but that is where the good news ended. Villa Park had the first sighting of Michael Boulding, a player clearly unfit for even this reduced standard. Boulding appeared alongside Marcus Allbäck who although infinitely superior was also worryingly below the standard and pace in a relatively benign European tie. 

  • The worst was to come however as Paul Merson makes his final appearance in a Villa shirt.

  •  A player with ability and influence far beyond the rest of the squad, who even as a cameo substitute could deliver a power of good to the team, was discarded. 

  • Merson moved on to Portsmouth on a free transfer in August 2002 as Villa prematurely lost a player considered to be one of the most talented and charismatic to have pulled on the claret and blue was deemed surplus to requirements robbing the team of much needed creativity. Merson played for Villa between 1998-99 and 2002-03. 

  • In sum then, this also ran Intertoto game, had implications far beyond the result on the pitch and signalled the huge challenges ahead for Villa.

  • Forward Stefan Moore makes his competitive debut for Villa aged 18 after coming through the ranks of youth football.

  • Swedish international forward Marcus Allbäck makes a goalscoring Villa debut aged 29 after joining from SC Heerenveen for a fee of £2,700,000 earlier this month. 

  • Forward Michael Boulding makes the last of his 2 appearances for Villa. Boulding was a curiosity, an ex-tennis player who had played in the lower leagues brought to the club only weeks before and promoted to the first team immediately only to then be discarded just as quickly. 

  • Mark Delaney makes his 100th appearance in a Villa shirt (84 Starts) to make it W38 D31 L31, 1 Goal, 2 Assists, 13 Bookings and 2 Red Cards so far in his Villa career.

  • Olof Mellberg secures his 10th win in a Villa shirt on his 37th appearance to make it W10 D14 L13, 1 Assist and 1 Booking so far in his Villa career.

DEBUT APPEARANCES

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🟢 F Marcus Allbäck | 🇸🇪 |
🟢 F Stefan Moore | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

FINAL APPEARANCES

🔴 F Michael Boulding | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 2002 | 🕒 2 | 2 (0) | ⚽ 1 | 🔥 0 | 🇺 3 | #758 |
🔴 M Paul Merson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1998-02 | 🕒 144 | 125 (19) | ⚽ 19 | 🔥 18 | 🇺 11 | #726 |

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Aston Villa

European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1995-96

FC Zürich

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European Cup / Champions League: ❌
Swiss League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Swiss Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Swiss League Cup Winners: 🏆
Last Trophy: 1999-00

Aston Villa

FC Zürich

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FIXTURE HISTORY

Villa v

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FC Zürich

Previous 5 vs. Zürich: 🟥

FC Zürich

PREVIOUS MATCH

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FC Zürich

SUBSEQUENT MATCH

None

FIXTURE DETAILS

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Season | 2002-03 |
Matchday | #2 |
Manager Game | #15 |
Saturday, 27 July 2002

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MATCH SUMMARY

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Manager: Graham Taylor | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Worksop, 2002-2003
Referee: Roberto Rosetti | 🇮🇹 | Turin, 2002-2010
HT Score: 🟩 1-0
FT Score: 🟩 3-0
Aggregate Score: 🟩 3-2
Aggregate Result: 🟩 Won
Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟩 🟥 🟩

MANAGERIAL RECORD

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Graham Taylor | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 2002-2003

GAMES | WINS | DRAWS | LOSSES | POINTS PER GAME

🕒 15 | 🟩 | 4 🟨 | 4 🟥 7 | 1.07

Villa Career Form:

Bottom 8

MATCH OFFICIALS

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Referee: Roberto Rosetti | 🇮🇹 | Turin, 2002-2010
Matches Officiated: 1
🟩 : 1
🟨 : 0
🟥 : 0
🆘 : 0
Previous 5: None
Last Match: None
Cards: 🟨 🟨

ALL THE MATCHES REFEREED BY:

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CARDS

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🟨

🟨

TEAM NEWS

Lee Hendrie, Ian Taylor, Steve Staunton, Olof Mellberg and Marcus Allbäck replace Jlloyd Samuel, Dion Dublin, Alan Wright, George Boateng and Steve Stone.

TEAM STATS

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Starting XI Average Age
| 26.30 |

Oldest Player |
M Ian Taylor | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 34.17 |

Youngest Player |
M Thomas Hitzlsperger | 🇩🇪 | 20.32 |

MANAGER

Graham Taylor | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 2002-2003

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Aston Villa

GK Peter Enckelman | 🇫🇮 |
LB Steve Staunton | 🇮🇪 | 🟨 | ⚽ |
CB Olof Mellberg | 🇸🇪 |
RB Mark Delaney | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 |
M Gareth Barry | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Lee Hendrie | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Thomas Hitzlsperger | 🇩🇪 | 🔥 |
M Ian Taylor | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CF Peter Crouch | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔥 |
F Marcus Allbäck | 🇸🇪 | 🟢 | ⚽ | 🔁 |
F Michael Boulding | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ | 🔴 | 🔁 |

MANAGER

Georges Bregy |🇨🇭|

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FC Zürich

GK Miroslav König | 🇸🇰 |
LB Yvan Quentin |🇨🇭|
LB Mario Raimondi |🇨🇭| 🟨 | 🔁 |
CB Alain Nef |🇨🇭|
CB Stephen Keller |🇨🇭|
CB Urs Fischer |🇨🇭|
CB Tariq Chihab | 🇲🇦 | 🔁 |
M Wilco Hellinga | 🇳🇱 |
M Luca Iodice |🇨🇭|
W Kanga Akalé | 🇨🇮 |
CF Alhassane Keita | 🇬🇳 | 🔁 |

SUBSTITUTES

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🔁 M Paul Merson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔥 | 🔴 | for F Michael Boulding | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 46’ |
🔁 F Stefan Moore | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🟢 | for F Marcus Allbäck | 🇸🇪 | 71’ |

SUBSTITUTES

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🔁 | LB Mario Raimondi |🇨🇭| (M Daniel Tarone |🇨🇭|)
🔁 | CB Tariq Chihab | 🇲🇦 | (RB David Pallas |🇨🇭|)
🔁 | CF Alhassane Keita | 🇬🇳 | (M Daniel Gygax |🇨🇭|)

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

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GK Stefan Postma | 🇳🇱 |
CB Liam Ridgewell | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Mustapha Hadji | 🇲🇦 |
CF Dion Dublin | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
F Boško Balaban | 🇭🇷 |

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

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GK Davide Taini | 🇨🇭 |
LB Marc Schneider | 🇨🇭 |
RB Sébastien Jeanneret | 🇨🇭 |
D Sherif Jashari | 🇨🇭 |

Player Positions:

GK : Goalkeeper
CB, D, B : Centre Back, Defender, Back
FB, LB, RB, WH : Full Back, Left Back, Right Back, Wing Back, Wing Half


M, CH, LH, RH : Midfielder, Centre Half, Left Half, Right Half
W, OL, OR : Winger, Outside Left, Outside Right
F, IF, IL, IR : Forward, Inside Forward, Inside Left, Inside Right, Second Striker, False 9
CF : Centre Forward

Match Symbols:

⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution

🟨 | Booking

🟥 | Sending off

🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game

SQUAD STATS

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1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 6/11
Homegrown: 3/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 10/18
Homegrown: 5/18

SQUAD STATS

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Home Nation 🇨🇭 : 9/14

MATCHDAY SQUAD

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MATCHDAY SQUAD

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UNAVAILABLE

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Not reported

UNAVAILABLE

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Not Recorded

Media & Commentary

LEAGUE TABLE

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MATCHDAY PROGRAMME

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EXTERNAL MATCH REPORT LINKS

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AVFC HISTORY MATCH SUMMARY

Villa overcome their first leg deficit to hammer Zürich at Villa Park and qualify for the Intertoto semi final.

MATCH QUOTES

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"Villa’s first chance fell to Boulding, signed from Grimsby, who lofted his shot over the bar after being played through by Allback."

ORIGINAL MATCH REPORT

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*BBC Sport*
Saturday, 27 July, 2002

*Villa revive Euro dream* Aston Villa completed a superb comeback to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit against FC Zurich and book their place in the semi-finals of the Intertoto Cup. New signing Michael Boulding made the breakthrough on 32 minutes, with Swedish World Cup striker Marcus Allback crowning his debut with the goal that levelled the aggregate scores. But it was old campaigner Steve Staunton who notched Villa’s third on 77 minutes to send Graham Taylor’s side through. Taylor gave Allback his debut as he rang the changes from the side beaten 2-0 in the first leg. Left out were Dion Dublin, Alan Wright and Steve Stone, while George Boateng, linked with a move to Middlesbrough, was not even included on the substitutes’ bench. In came Olof Mellberg, Steve Staunton, Ian Taylor and Lee Hendrie for his first start since Taylor’s first match as manager in February. Zurich were without Ursal Yasar, scorer of the second goal in the first leg, through suspension after his red card late in the game. Villa’s first chance fell to Boulding, signed from Grimsby, who lofted his shot over the bar after being played through by Allback. The big Swede then forced Miroslav Konig to tip over a looping header, while Peter Crouch then sent a header straight at the Slovakian international keeper. With the cushion of a 2-0 lead, Zurich were content to sit back and hit Villa on the break. The Swiss side looked desperate at times at the back. But it was Mellberg who was left breathing a sigh of relief when he brought Alhassane Keitas down on the edge of the penalty area and saw Luca Iodice fire the free-kick over. Villa got the breakthrough they needed on 32 minutes when Boulding cut the deficit in half. The former tennis professional earned a free-kick when he was brought down by Alain Nef, and when Gareth Barry’s attempt was nodded across goal by Peter Crouch, Boulding forced the ball home. Villa keeper Peter Enckelman was forced to make a good save from Raimondi, but it was generally one-way traffic. Paul Merson was introduced as a half-time substitute and made an impact within four minutes, setting up Villa’s second goal. He sent a delightful chip into the patch of Allback who volleyed his first goal for Villa to level the scores on aggregate. Allback showed good skills to work himself a shooting space, only to lob gently into Konig’s hand while at the other end, Enkelman easily collected a shot from Chihab on a rare Zurich raid. Villa completed their comeback when Staunton headed in Hitzlsperger’s cross to make it 3-0 on the day, and 3-2 on aggregate.

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