Villa safely progressed to the group stages of the UEFA Cup after
drawing 1-1 with Litex Lovech at Villa Park.
Martin O'Neill made six changes from the team that beat Sunderland at
the weekend with Carlos Cuellar, Zat Knight, James Milner, Wayne
Routledge, Moustapha Salifou and Marlon Harewood all getting run outs.
Leading 3-1 on aggregate from the first leg, Villa sought to put the tie
beyond all doubt in the early stages with Ashley Young going close at
the near post and Salifou flashing a long-range effort just over the
bar.
Despite missing the presence of John Carew, Villa were looking vibrant
in attack and after Young had shot over, the pressure finally told on 27
minutes.
Harewood collected a long punt from Brad Friedel and bulldozed his way
through the heart of the visitors' defence before unleashing an unerring
drive across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner.
Impressive
It was the striker's first goal of the season and owed much to his
unyielding determination.
The lead was almost doubled just moments later when the impressive Young
jinked his way in from the left and dragged a shot narrowly wide of the
far post as Villa began to dominate.
Litex offered little threat in the first half, but their hardy band of
followers were given something to cheer about just after the break when
Cuellar clumsily brought down Tom in full flight inside the penalty
area. Wilfried Niflore coolly converted the spot kick to level the
scores.
Sensing a way back into the game the Bulgarians found a new lease of
life, but despite their neat build-up play, rarely threatened Friedel in
the home goal.
Indeed it was Villa who looked more likely to grab a winner late on with
Young slamming a powerful close-range effort against an upright and
twice sending free-kicks over as O'Neill's troops comfortably qualified
for the second phase.