Villa stroll past Litex

Harewood: On score-sheet

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Aston Villa booked their place in the group stages of the Uefa Cup despite being held to a 1-1 home draw with Litex Lovech.

Villa won the first leg 3-1 against their Bulgarian opponents, but they were less dominant in England.

Marlon Harwood put Martin O'Neill's side in front on 27 minutes as Villa looked set to cruise through.

However, a Wilfred Niflore penalty on 53 minutes brought Litex back into the tie to raise nerves at Villa Park.

Villa boss Martin O'Neill had enough confidence in his squad to make six changes from what has become his established Premier league line-up, with Martin Laursen, Curtis Davies, Nigel Reo-Coker, Gareth Barry, John Carew and Gabriel Agbonlahor all rested.

Armed with a 3-1 lead from the first leg, it was an ideal scenario for the Villa chief ahead of Sunday's league meeting with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

But the former Celtic manager was still able to bring in the likes of James Milner and Carlos Cuellar who had been signed for a combined £20million during the summer, while Stiliyan Petrov was selected as captain for the first time.

Intensity

Given the scoreline from the first leg, the game struggled to attain any great intensity, with Villa always having the insurance from events in Bulgaria a fortnight ago to fall back on.

The lively Harewood had the first effort on target - a low shot on the turn which was comfortably collected by Litex goalkeeper Todor Todorov.

Then Harewood cut in from the left and saw a curling attempt deflected just wide by fellow forward Young after he had stuck out a leg.

Harewood was seeing plenty of the ball in the early stages and he found himself in space behind the Litex defence from Young's pass but he took too long to steady himself and Alexandre Barthe was able to make the challenge.

Villa continued to look the more threatening as Moustapha Salifou flashed a 20-yard half-volley just wide after Cuellar had headed a corner from Nicky Shorey back into his path.

Litex captain Ivelin Popov became the first player to be yellow-carded after 21 minutes for a late challenge on Cuellar.

Invitation

Young drilled a long-range effort over the bar before Harewood's first goal of the campaign arrived.

Brad Friedel's long clearance was flicked on by Young into the path of Harewood who needed no second invitation to show his pace and clinical finishing.

He shook off the challenge of Plamen Nikolov before hammering a fierce shot across Todorov and into the corner of the net to stretch Villa's aggregate lead to 4-1.

Litex coach Stanimir Stoilov made a half-time substitution, bringing on Momchil Tzvetanov for Plamen Nikolov.

And after 53 minutes the Bulgarians were back on level terms thanks to a controversial penalty.

Brazil-born midfielder Tom made a powerful run into the Villa box before going down after being challenged by Cuellar, but replays showed the former Rangers player had got a toe-end to the ball.

Up stepped Niflore to send Friedel the wrong way from the spot and level the match on the night.

Milner was having a quiet game by his standards although Todorov needed two attempts to block a shot from the England Under-21 international.

Wayne Routledge showed good skill to create a chance for himself following a Milner centre and his eventual shot was parried for a corner by Todorov.

Young almost clinched match victory for Villa when his shot thumped against the post following a Harewood flick-on but by then the hosts were home and dry.