Sport

Draw more than enough for Villa
by JP Lonergan, 28 August 2008

Aston Villa eased into the first round proper of The Uefa Cup on Thursday evening after a 1-1 draw with FH Hafnarfjordur of Iceland, Martin O'Neill's men going through 5-2 on aggregate.

Craig Gardner opened the scoring for Villa in the 27th minute and although Atli Bjornsson levelled soon after for the champions of Iceland, there was never any danger of Villa not going through on a night when O’Neill rested a number of key players, though Gabriel Agbonlahor and Gareth Barry did start with Nigel Reo-Coker played out of position at right back.

Wayne Routledge, looking to stake a claim for more regular football, had the game’s first chance after just 30 seconds, but fired a difficult effort horribly off target before sending an excellent cross across the face of goal soon after from which Gardner shot wide.

Despite the 4-1 lead they held going into the game, Villa were looking for more goals and another man who is not a regular in the side, Moustapha Salifou, had an unsuccessful go from 25 yards after being fed by an Agbonlahor pass.

Routledge was then wasteful after tigerish work from Gardner and clever play from Agbonlahor and Stilyan Petrov led to him having an opening from the edge of the area but he dinked it over the bar.

Barry then had a shot with his right foot from range and saw it go wide to the left of Róbert Örn Óskarsson’s goal and Gardner then sent one wide to the right of the goal as Villa continued to do all the attacking.

And the home side were rewarded on 27 minutes by a great finish from Gardner. A long ball from Curtis Davies found Harewood on the right of the area and he sent in a cross as Gardner bounded into the area and hit a left-foot shot to the back of Oskarsson’s net.

But without warning, the men from Iceland equalised less than three minutes later. Brad Freidel is not normally one to make errors, but he failed to hold a corner from Matthias Gudmundsson allowing the ball to fall to the feet of Bjornsson and he smashed it home.

Salifou then screwed an effort across goal before the break as the sides went in level on the night.

After the restart, Gardner was released by Agbonlahor but failed to hit the target and then a Barry free-kick was headed downward by Harewood and Salifou just failed to get a connection that would surely have seen Villa back in front.

Hafnarfjordur then had a spell on the attack as the home fans got restless and goalscorer Bjornsson went looking for a second only for Friedel to hold his shot. Petur Sigurdsson then fired behind the goal.

The visitor’s pressure did not last long, however, and back up the other end, Barry managed to gain control of the ball in the box after some good play from Routledge on the right and he laid it back to Gardner, who this time fired wide from 20 yards.

Isaiah Osbourne, making his first appearance of the season, was not having as much of an effect on the game as fellow incomers Gardner and Routledge and he sent the next shot wide in one of his few notable contributions to the night.

Sub Nathan Delfouneso then fired of target after great battling by Marlon Harewood led to the former West Ham man having a shot that rebounded off Oskarsson’s head and fell for the young man who had replaced Agbonlahor.

As the game petered out, Reo-Coker had a pop from distance that did not trouble Oskarsson and Harewood failed to deliver a decent ball when Delfouneso was in space in the area in what was all in all a low-pressure night for the Birmingham side.

Aston Villa: Friedel 6.5, Reo-Coker 7, Knight 6.5, Davies 7.5, Barry 7, Routledge 7, Osbourne 6, Salifou 6, Gardner *8.5, Agbonlahor 6.5 (Delfouneso ’62, 7), Harewood 7.