Aston Villa's Uefa Cup hopes ended as they lost 2-0 to 2005 winners CSKA Moscow in Russia
CSKA advance to last 16 after 3-1 aggregate success
Aston Villa's Uefa Cup hopes were ended as they lost 2-0 to 2005 winners CSKA Moscow in Russia.
Villa boss Martin O'Neill fielded a greatly weakened side which succumbed to second-half goals from Yuri Zhirkov and Vagner Love as CSKA completed a 3-1 aggregate success.
Zhirkov scored following a free-kick awarded for a debatable foul by Curtis Davies and Villa, showing eight changes from the team that lost to Chelsea last weekend, then conceded a second in stoppage time to leading scorer Love.
O'Neill gave full debuts to teenage midfielders Barry Bannan and Marc Albrighton and Villa held their own for an hour.
Deadlock
But once Zhirkov broke the deadlock the outcome was never in doubt as Zico's side booked a last-16 clash against either Tottenham or Shakhtar Donetsk.
O'Neill left Gareth Barry, Brad Friedel, Emile Heskey, James Milner, Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Carlos Cuellar and Stiliyan Petrov back at home as he looked to protect Villa's top-four prospects in the Premier League.
And Villa were unable to fill their bench when John Carew pulled out with a back problem.
The visitors were also faced with a plastic pitch and sub-zero conditions at the Luzhniki Stadium as the odds against then stacked up.
But Villa's second string side put up a decent fight without ever really threatening to land a killer blow as they found decent chances hard to create until a late flurry when Zat Knight and Nathan Delfouneso had sights of goal.
Experience
With experience in defence in the shape of stand-in captain Luke Young, Knight, Davies and Nicky Shorey Villa kept CSKA at bay with some comfort in the first half.
O'Neill then threw on Marlon Harewood as a second striker at the start of the second half to try and force the away goal Villa needed.
But with extra space to play in midfield, Zico's CSKA side finally took control and after being denied once by Bradley Guzan, Zhirkov broke the deadlock.
A Davies tackle on Milos Krasic on the right-hand corner of the area resulted in German referee Felix Brych harshly punishing the centre-back.
That allowed Dzagoev to tee up Zhirkov for a thunderous drive from the edge of the area that flew through a crowd of players and inside Guzan's left-hand post.
Other opportunities followed with Guzan twice denying Zhirkov again, before
CSKA gained their reward with virtually the last kick of the game via Love's 10th goal of the competition and 26th in 42 European games overall.
| CSKA Moscow |
Team Statistics |
Aston Villa |
| 2 |
Goals |
0 |
| 0 |
1st Half Goals |
0 |
| 8 |
Shots on Target |
3 |
| 8 |
Shots off Target |
2 |
| 6 |
Blocked Shots |
2 |
| 6 |
Corners |
2 |
| 14 |
Fouls |
16 |
| 2 |
Offsides |
4 |
| 1 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 79.4 |
Passing Success |
66.7 |
| 23 |
Tackles |
22 |
| 73.9 |
Tackles Success |
59.1 |
| 57.3 |
Possession |
42.7 |
| 55.1 |
Territorial Advantage |
44.9 |
|
