UEFA Cup - Aston Villa through after draw

Eurosport - Fri, 03 Oct 16:23:00 2008

Aston Villa went through to the group stage of the UEFA Cup after a 1-1 draw at home to Litex Lovech.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 UEFA Cup Aston Villa Aston Villa-Litex Harewood - 0

Marlon Harewood (pictured) struck his first goal of the season against the battling Bulgarian side.

The former West Ham striker opened the scoring after 27 minutes when he got on the end of a Brad Friedel punt, held off Plamen Nikolov and fired low into the bottom left.

Villa rested several key players but seemed to be in control until after the goal, when their guests employed a direct style and started to create chances of their own.

Ivelin Popov was particularly influential with some driving runs and shots, and Litex got their reward early in the second half when Wellington was brought down in the box by Carlos Cuellar.

Replays suggested the Spaniard got a foot to the ball, but Wilfred Niflore casually stroked the ball into the bottom left, with Friedel going the other way.

The match then opened up.

Litex pressed and pressed and, after one goalmouth scramble, almost took the lead, but Villa dropped into their typical counter-attacking style and could have scored several more.

Ashley Young hit the woodwork after a Harewood flick-on, while James Milner and Wayne Routledge had good chances.

But Martin O'Neill's men held on for what was a comfortable win in the end.

Reda Maher / Eurosport

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  1. No6 Sappercommando25 the sort of name to be expected from a know nothing knobhead

    From astonbilla, on Fri 3 Oct 9:48AM

  2. who is viila? the Mighty LITEX!! haha !!!villa is panduri tg jiu!!!!hahaahahah!! cfr draw against chelsea !! not litex!!!haha!!
    you will never play in champios league!!!
    come on liverpool
    coome on rafa
    come on gerrard

    From Bratu, on Fri 3 Oct 8:11AM

  3. aston villa,ENGLAND=F**K litex mangers

    From robert w, on Fri 3 Oct 7:21AM

  4. come on villa.all the way to the title.yahoooooooooooooo

    From robert w, on Fri 3 Oct 7:17AM

  5. Aston Villa won't win silverware at all as they're just not good enough so dream on boys. Villa is just another one of those brummie clubs propping up the Premiership and always will be.

    From sappercommando25, on Fri 3 Oct 3:55AM

  6. (3) What or who are pods.Am I one ?

    From brian d, on Fri 3 Oct 3:02AM

  7. LITEX...BULGARIA...F*K VILA

    From Petranka, on Fri 3 Oct 1:33AM

  8. Come on the villa, if the pods can get into the uefa cup final last season we shud walk it this year

    From rhartnett_jrglass, on Fri 3 Oct 12:44AM

  9. Litex have played so good at the first leg..they really got unlucky in Bulgaria!

    From delyanboy, on Thu 2 Oct 11:25PM

  10. come on villa lets not under achieve again,we have some great players and a fantastic manager.

    From stuart5455@..., on Thu 2 Oct 10:54PM
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