Features

Tough tests for British quartet

Author: John Harris
Date: 19/08/2009
Football betting

The expanded Europa League Play-off round will provide the final hurdle for four British teams before the competition, re-branded from the UEFA Cup, enters its group stage.

With clubs which won cups in major leagues and those which just missed out on Champions League places also involved, it is no surprise that each British team faces a tricky looking tie.

Although a ranking system has saved them from playing the top clubs, Aston Villa's trip to 2008 Austrian league winners Rapid Vienna - veterans of the Champions League and UEFA Cup - looks a particularly large banana skin.

With regular international players such as Croatia's Mario Tokic, Montenegro's Milan Jovanovic and Finn Markus Heikkinen, Rapid are not short of experience and will be looking to exploit the weaknesses that Wigan exposed at the weekend when they won 2-0 at Villa Park.

Martin O'Neill's midfield were particularly shaken on Saturday and the former Celtic boss may be tempted to replace Fabian Delph or James Milner with Nigel Reo-Coker or Steve Sidwell.

Can Villa bounce back from a poor league start and win in Europe? - Latest Footbal Betting

Of all the British clubs in the competition, Villa are the favourites in the online betting markets to go far in this season's competition.

The other two Premier League representatives, Everton and Fulham, start their ties at home with the Toffees, who were hammered 6-1 by Arsenal on Saturday, given the tougher task.

Their opponents, Czech side Sigma Olomouc, crushed Aberdeen 8-1 on aggregate in the previous round, when Tomas Horava and Michael Hubnik in particular looked a serious threat to goal.

Everton manager David Moyes hasn't got a deep enough squad to make wholesale changes after their disastrous start to the league campaign, although Louis Saha could be given a chance in attack while the potential sale of Joleon Lescott could yet force the Scotsman's hand.

Fulham will be looking to take a big lead in the first leg of their tie against Amkar Perm, a club which were a surprise hit in the Russian Premier League last year but are sitting fourth from bottom this term, to avoid needing a win in central Russia next week.

Meanwhile Hearts face Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb, winners of their national league for the past four years, a team which contains some names and faces recognisable to British fans.

Captain Igor Biscan spent five mixed years at Liverpool, midfielder Robert Kovac has European experience with Bayern Munich and Juventus while Dimitrios Papadopoulos played 35 times for Burnley at the start of the decade.

Hearts will have Marius Zaliukas back after a league suspension but may make a number of changes to rest players following Monday's league match at Dundee United.

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