Game #5032
Aston Villa

Thursday, 20 August 2009
Play Off
Last 5: 🟥 🟨 🟩 🟥 🟥
GK Brad Guzan | 🇺🇸 |
LB Nicky Shorey | 🏴 |
CB Carlos Cuéllar | 🇪🇸 |
CB Curtis Davies | 🏴 | 🔁 |
RB Habib Bèye | 🇸🇳 |
M Steve Sidwell | 🏴 | 🟨 |
M Nigel Reo-Coker | 🏴 |
M Craig Gardner | 🏴 | 🔁 |
W Ashley Young | 🏴 |
W James Milner | 🏴 |
CF Emile Heskey | 🏴 |
Martin O'Neill | 🇬🇧 | 2006-2010

Substitutes
🔁 F Gabriel Agbonlahor | 🏴 | for M Craig Gardner | 🏴 | 55’ |
🔁 CB Shane Lowry | 🇦🇺 | for CB Curtis Davies | 🏴 | 80’ |
Unused Substitutes
GK Brad Friedel | 🇺🇸 |
M Fabian Delph | 🏴 |
M Stiliyan Petrov | 🇧🇬 |
W Marc Albrighton | 🏴 |
F Nathan Delfouneso | 🏴 |
Yellow Cards (Warnings, Cautions, Bookings)
🟨 Steve Sidwell (8)
Red Cards (Ordered from Field of Play, Dismissals, Sendings Off)
Trophy Record
European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1995-96
Matchday Squad
Unavailable
Not recorded
Team News
Steve Sidwell, Brad Guzan, Nigel Reo-Coker and Craig Gardner replace Gabriel Agbonlahor, Stiliyan Petrov, Fabian Delph and Brad Friedel as Martin O'Neill makes four changes for the UEFA Cup.
Team Stats
Starting XI Average Age
| 26.61 |
Oldest Player |
RB Habib Bèye | 🇸🇳 | 32.61 |
Youngest Player |
M Craig Gardner | 🏴 | 22.75 |
Debut Appearances
🟢 CB Shane Lowry | 🇦🇺 | #819 | Youth Team promotiion
Final Appearances
None
Scorer(s) | None
Assist(s) | None
Match Timeline
🥅 | 1’ Goal, 0-1, (SK Rapid Wien), 40 seconds, Nikica Jelavic
🟨 | 41’ Booking, Steve Sidwell
🕒 | HT SK Rapid Wien 1-0 Aston Villa
🔁 | 55’ Sub off, Craig Gardner, Sub on, Gabriel Agbonlahor
🔁 | 80’ Sub off, Curtis Davies, Sub on, Shane Lowry 🟢
🕒 | FT SK Rapid Wien 1-0 Aston Villa
Season | 2009-10 |
Matchday | #2 |
Manager Game | #140 |
Thursday, 20 August 2009

Match Record
Game Record
Manager: Martin O’Neill | 🇬🇧 | County Londonderry, 2006-2010
Referee: Alexandru Dan Tudor | 🇷🇴 | Bucharest, 2009
Kick off: 6.15pm
HT Score: 🟥 0-1
FT Score: 🟥 0-1
FT Result: 🟥 Lost
Last 5: 🟥 🟨 🟩 🟥 🟥
Officials
Referee: Alexandru Dan Tudor | 🇷🇴 | Bucharest, 2009
Assistants: Cristian Nica | 🇷🇴 | Aurel Oniţă | 🇷🇴 |
Referee: Alexandru Dan Tudor | 🇷🇴 | Bucharest, 2009
Games: 🕒 1 🟩 W0 (0%) 🟥 L1 (100%) Last 5: 🟥
Cards: 🟨 1 🟥 0 | 1.00 per game | Pens: ⚽ 0 | 🥅 0 |
Match Stats
Not recorded
Martin O'Neill | 🇬🇧 | 2006-2010
🕒 140 | 🟩 | 54 🟨 | 45 🟥 41 | 1.48
Villa Career Form:
Top 8

Europa League
SK Rapid Wien

Gerhard Hanappi Stadion, Vienna
Attendance: 17,800
GK Helge Payer | 🇦🇹 |
CB Jürgen Patocka | 🇦🇹 |
CB Milan Jovanović | 🇲🇪 |
CB Markus Katzer | 🇦🇹 |
CB Andreas Dober | 🇦🇹 | 🟨 |
CB Markus Heikkinen | 🇫🇮 |
M Steffen Hofmann | 🇩🇪 |
M Christopher Drazan | 🇦🇹 | 🔁 |
M Yasin Pehlivan | 🇦🇹 |
CF Mario Konrad | 🇦🇹 | 🔁 |
CF Nikica Jelavić | 🇭🇷 | ⚽ |
Peter Pacult | 🇦🇹 |

Substitutes
🔁 | M Christopher Drazan | 🇦🇹 | (M Branko Bošković | 🇲🇪 |)
🔁 | CF Mario Konrad | 🇦🇹 | (RB Christopher Trimmel | 🇦🇹 |)
Unused Substitutes
GK Raimund Hedl | 🇦🇹 |
CB Hannes Eder | 🇦🇹 |
CB Ragnvald Soma | 🇳🇴 |
M Stefan Kulovits | 🇦🇹 |
M Christian Thonhofer | 🇦🇹 |
Yellow Cards (Warnings, Cautions, Bookings)
🟨 Andreas Dober
Red Cards (Ordered from Field of Play, Dismissals, Sendings Off)
Opposition Trophy Record
European Cup / Champions League: ❌
Austrian Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Austrian Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 2007-08
Opposition Matchday Squad
Opposition Unavailable
Not Recorded
Starting XI
Match Media
On This Day
Martin O'Neill fields another weakened team in Europe and the inevitable happens once again. Villa make it successive defeats to open 2009-10 as they fall to Rapid in Vienna as Nikica Jelavić scores his first but definitely not his last goal against Villa after 40 seconds to give his side a narrow advantage ahead of the second leg.
Villa face SK Rapid Wien for the first time in competitive football, Rapid become the 159th team that the Villa first team has played in League or Cup football, Villa’s 42nd continental European opponents and their first from Austria.
Villa's disappointing start to the campaign continued after conceding a 41 second goal in Austria to lose their second game in succession under Martin O'Neill
Defender Shane Lowry, 20, makes his Villa debut after coming through the youth ranks to become the 819th player to play for Villa in first team League or Cup football.
What they Said
"I wasn't disappointed with the performance.
"For a start, Rapid are a very good side, as they showed in beating Liverpool [in a pre-season friendly] a few weeks ago. The timing of the goal was very disappointing but we have to fight back. We have a big game to look forward to a Villa Park now and we have to go and win it, which we are capable of doing."
Martin O’Neill.
"I have never seen something [his ‘Moscow Moment’] rumble on so long in my life.
”I don't see the logic attached to the endless criticism that we received. It really is mind-blowing that people are looking to that to explain what happened at the end of last season.”
Martin O’Neill still doesn’t get it.
Aston Villa gauged their success last season in large part by qualification to the Europa League, but the chances of their making it even as far as the group stages this time around was thrown into doubt on Thursday night after they lost their first leg of the final stages of qualifying against Rapid Vienna.
It leaves them nought for two this season, and with what Martin O’Neill understatedly described as “a big game” to look forward to at Villa Park in six days time.
The Villa manager had promised changes from the side that started and played so poorly against Wigan at the weekend, and he made four in total, exchanging his captain Stiliyan Petrov with Nigel Reo-Coker being the most significant. He tinkered with the formation too, Villa playing five across the midfield for the first time since February. Ultimately, they were changes that backfired.
This was not a night to be a Villa supporter, crowbarred into the corner of a packed-out Gerhard Hanappi stadium. Armed with loudhailers, microphones and never-ending enthusiasm, bare-chested supporters who had taken it upon themselves to MC for the night whipped their fellow fans into a ferment. The travelling supporters - less than 300 of them - didn’t stand a chance.
In fact, they spent most of the opening 15 minutes with their hands held in front of their eyes, ostensibly shading themselves from the sun which was sinking behind the stadium, although it could just as easily have been because they didn’t want to see what was happening before them.
They wouldn’t have believed their eyes anyway, not when Rapid scored in under a minute. Christopher Drazan crossed from the left, Curtis Davies slipped - so cruel - and Nikica Jelavic was left in the middle of the penalty area with a free header to guide past a gawping Brad Guzan. Villa hadn’t touched the ball. Only 16 seconds had elapsed. They don’t call them Rapid for nothing.
O’Neill had accused his side of lacking fight at the weekend, and so this was the perfect opportunity to show their manager that they are not lacking in desire, for Reo-Coker to play the captaincy card and get his team-mates going. With their game-plan in tatters, off they tore in lung-bursting runs, bursting to eradicate the embarrassment. Ashley Young gave James Milner a tongue-lashing for not being quicker, more aggressive. “We gave a really good response when we went behind,” O’Neill said.
The only problem was that it had little effect. The passing in midfield was often poor, while defensively Habib Beye was done over by Drazan too often to credit, and even though the former Newcastle right-back received some words of wisdom from Guzan as they walked off the pitch at the break, he went missing again with a little over 20 minutes to go, and Guzan did well to save a low effort from the excellent Drazan.
The target had always been to score an away goal. Emile Heskey had a successful pre-season, turning into something of a goal machine out in Spain, but his new-found talent was not on show last night. It wasn’t until the 63rd minute that those unhappy Villa supporters saw their first moment of inspiration, as Young swivelled, and sent a left-footed cross fizzing into the area, but Davies’ header went over.
Time slipped by without any more chances, then the notorious Rapidviertelstunde began, the home fans marking the final 15 minutes of the match with resounding, rhythmic clapping that shook the stadium as it has done for near on 90 years. Villa, like their supporters, were drowned out. Even so, they are not yet down and out.