Troubled Aston Villa suffered another damaging setback on Thursday when they crashed out of the Europa League with Scottish hopes also suffering a triple wipeout.
Villa, who saw Martin O’Neill quit as coach on the eve of the Premier League kick-off and James Milner sold to Manchester City, were beaten 3-2 by Rapid Vienna in their play-off second leg.
That gave the Austrians a 4-3 aggregate win to follow up their victory over the Midlanders in last season’s tournament.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Villa twice led on Thursday and also missed a penalty as they joined the Scottish trio of Celtic, Dundee United and Motherwell in being forced to write off their European hopes for another season.
Liverpool and Manchester City were left as Britain’s only representatives in yesterday’s draw for the group stages of Europe’s second-tier tournament.
Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool overcame a disastrous start to score twice in the last seven minutes to defeat Trabzonspor 2-1 for a 3-1 aggregate victory, while City saw off Timisoara of Romania 2-0 at home for a 3-0 triumph.
PHOTO: AFP
At Villa Park, Gabriel Agbonlahor gave Villa an early lead, but Vienna hit back through Atdhe Nuhiu.
Emile Heskey then restored Villa’s lead with 13 minutes remaining after Stiliyan Petrov had missed a penalty.
However, Mario Sonnleitner headed Vienna level a minute later before substitute Rene Gartler put the visitors through in the 81st minute.
“We gave away three really silly goals. We got ourselves 2-1 up and we should have been able to hold the lead for more than a few minutes,” said Villa caretaker coach Kevin MacDonald whose side were routed 6-0 by Newcastle in the Premier League on Monday.
“It is very disappointing and we defended very poorly.”
Playing without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, Liverpool saw their 1-0 first leg advantage last just four minutes in Turkey when Colombian international Teofilo Gutierrez put the home side in front.
He had been set up by Gustavo Colman who had pounced when Dirk Kuyt had given the ball away.
However, Hodgson’s side regained the initiative in the 83rd minute when Trabzonspor’s Giray Kacar diverted a Glen Johnson cross into his own net.
Kuyt then added the second on the night for Liverpool in the 88th minute after goalkeeper Onur Kivrak could only parry Joe Cole’s shot into the Dutchman’s path.
“A lot of people have said a lot of things about my future, but for me it is at Liverpool. I like it here at the club and I want to stay here and win things,” Kuyt said.
Shaun Wright-Phillips scored his first goal of the season to help Manchester City overcome Timisoara at Eastlands.
The England winger produced a calm finish in the 43rd minute to open the scoring for Roberto Mancini’s side. Dedryck Boyata made it 2-0 in the second half with a close range header to score the first goal of his professional career.
Celtic, who had already been knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers, surrendered a 2-0 first leg lead to go down 4-0 in Utrecht in Holland.
Ricky van Wolfswinkel scored a hat-trick for the Dutch side with Barry Maguire adding a fourth as Celtic’s dismal away record in Europe continued, with just one win in 28 games on the road.
Motherwell lost 1-0 at nine-man Odense, who won the first leg 2-1, at Fir Park last week. Peter Utaka claimed the only goal in the 28th minute.
Dundee United drew 1-1 against AEK Athens, but went out 2-1 on aggregate in a match where the venue had to be moved several times.
Elsewhere, Juventus made sure of their place in the next round when Alessandro Del Pierro netted a 53rd-minute winner against Sturm Graz of Austria for a 3-1 aggregate victory.
Carlos Alcaraz on Monday powered into the French Open second round with a resounding win to start his title defense, while world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and three-time defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek also progressed at Roland Garros. Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz struck 31 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri and is to face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in round two. Alcaraz is now on an eight-match winning streak at the French Open and also took Olympic silver at Roland Garros last year, losing the final to Novak Djokovic. “The first round is never
TIGHT FINISH: Napoli only needed to do the same as or better than Inter, who won their game against Como 2-0 on the same day, leaving Napoli with a one-point lead The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli their second Serie A title in three years on Friday. Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari. Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams. “Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.” Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won
The journey of Taiwan’s badminton mixed doubles duo Ye Hong-wei and Nicole Chan at the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur came to an end in the semi-finals yesterday after they suffered a 2-0 loss to China’s Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Ye, 25, and Chan, 20, teamed up last year and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world. The Taiwanese shuttlers took on China’s second seeds in the mixed doubles event, but proved no match for Feng and Huang, losing the match 10-21, 7-21. In the first half of the first game, the pairings were neck and neck at 6-7 until Ye
SSC Napoli coach Antonio Conte has dragged the team back from disaster and restored them to the top of Italian Serie A, but his future at the Scudetto winners is in doubt even after a triumphant season. The fiery 55-year-old has exceeded preseason expectations and bolstered his reputation as a serial winner by guiding Napoli to their fourth Scudetto, and second in three seasons. However, he might well be on his way in the summer after just one season at the helm as his charged relationship with Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has simmered throughout the campaign. Conte has said
RSS