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Mellberg: Retains some hope of Europe

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Defender Olof Mellberg admits Aston Villa now face an uphill battle to qualify for Europe this season.

With Tottenham winning the Carling Cup and none of the 'big four' in the running to win the FA Cup, only a top-five league finish will secure Villa a European place - unless they try to qualify through the Intertoto Cup in the summer.

Wednesday's 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough left sixth-placed Villa seven points adrift of Everton and Liverpool, who are currently joint-fourth, with just nine games remaining.

But Mellberg, who has already agreed a move to Juventus this summer, insists there is still hope.

Form

"We can (qualify) but it looks tough with the sort of form that Liverpool and Everton are in," he said.

"We are in the same position as four years ago when we came sixth and missed out on goal difference to Newcastle, when again only the first five in the Premier League qualified for Europe.

"We need to give it a go. That's all we can do - put in better performances than against Middlesbrough and be a bit lucky with other results as well and then maybe we will have a chance.

"We haven't been that consistent throughout the whole season but we have shown we are able to bounce back. We have one of the best records for coming back from a goal down."

Villa face a stern test on Saturday as they travel to face seventh-placed Portsmouth, who are the only Premier League team left in the FA Cup after knocking out Manchester United at Old Trafford last weekend.

But Villla drew 1-1 at Arsenal in their last away league game and Mellberg believes facing the league's better teams brings the best out of Martin O'Neill's men.

Bounce back

"Portsmouth away is a tough game," he said. "But it might be a good game to bounce back in.

"We seem to have played fairly well away from home of late and the Fulham game was the last one where we didn't against a team struggling in the table.

"This was a similar situation where we were under pressure and favourites to win and needed to go at them, and it didn't work out which is frustrating.

"There have been a few games now where we have had pressure to win and maybe the opposition sit back a bit and we have struggled to win."