Hamburger SV 3-1 VILLA

By: Chris | December 18th, 2008

Well, that was just truly appalling in every way. So I’m going to start with the positives.

Aston Villa are in the last 32 of this year’s UEFA Cup. By finishing third in our group, behind Hamburg and Ajax, we’ve avoided teams dropping out of the Champions League – and AC Milan. We rested all our key players for the important Premier League match at West Ham United on Saturday.

The biggest positive by far was the performance of Nathan Delfouneso, capped by another UEFA Cup goal for the 17-year-old.

Despite all that, it’s never a good thing to go away in Europe and get absolutely tanked, which is exactly what happened last night.

Villa’s weakened line-up was reportedly used by HSV manager Martin Jol as the basis of his team talk, and his side faced a disturbingly easy task in topping the group.

Mladen Petric opened the scoring early on, and Croatian compatriot Ivica Olic made it two well before half time. Job done with time to spare – and so, so easy.

The second half at least saw Villa play with a little bit more determination, but the Russian match officials put paid to that in the build-up to Hamburg’s third goal. Hamburg goalkeeper Frank Rost defended a cross, not with his hands, with a disgraceful two footed tackle to the knees of Villa midfielder Craig Gardner. It was a certain penalty, and Rost should have been red carded and arrested for assault.

Gardner’s knees were a mess following the challenge, and I hope Villa write to UEFA to point out that the Hamburg goalkeeper belongs in a cage. From there, the ball was in the back of Brad Guzan’s net in 18 seconds. The superb Olic sealed Hamburg’s group-topping win, with a third assist being notched up by the Aston Villa defence.

Delfouneso grabbed the consolation goal for Villa (and he meant it) before Steve Sidwell, one of very few first teamers in action, picked up a late red card for a second booking.

It was a terrible night all round, so I suggest we put it behind us and look forward to the draw on Friday and Saturday’s trip to Upton Park.