Aston Villa Land Difficult Champions League Draw

Aston Villa's first foray into the top tier of European football for over twenty years resulted in Aston Villa being drew against Ukrainian runners up Dynamo Kyiv, who finished just two points behind the champions Shakhtar Donetsk.


Villa, who were unseeded because of there coefficient points could have had easier draws in Athletic Bilboa or PSV but they landed a tricky draw to Kyiv to have a shot at getting at getting into the Champions League proper.

If Kyiv are to defeat this ultra attacking Villa side then Portugese international Miguel Veluso will have a lot of defensive work to do trying to stop the very quick Villa frontline. Attacking wise Kyiv are very good with Younes Belhanda and Junior Moreas are the two players that Shawcross and Dendoncker need to look out for the speedy pacemen.


Younes Belhanda is one to watch for Dynamo Kyiv

For Villa to win they will need Dwight Gayle and Jamie Vardy to be firing on all cylinders if they are to be victorious here. Aston Villa should just have enough to see off the threat of the Ukrainian champions but it will all depend on the first leg at Villa Park.

The other playoff matches are as follows.

Champions Playoff

Best Placed Playoff

Gerrard's Boys Battle Past Kyiv

Aston Villa had an impressive home victory against Ukrainian runners up Dynamo Kyiv. The Ukrainians are alway a tough match but at Villa Park in the first leg, while being cheered on by over 41,000 fans, Villa forward Dwight Gayle was the match winner again for the Midland club bagging a brace, one in each half.


Gayle Scores again!

The first on 28 minutes actually came against the run of play when Gayle pounced on a through ball by young, talented central midfielder Callum O'Hare to round Koval and slot into the empty net.

That started things rolling for The Villans and Ayew, Grealish and Vardy all going close before half time. The second half started and Villa started the same way as they finished the half, on the front foot. Gayle went close with a left footed shot but Kyiv on the counter attack were dangerous, with Miguel Veluso and Antunes both forcing great saves out of Werner Hahn.


O'Hare was on form again

Villa, though were always in an element of control and in the 75th minute Ayew raced onto a sloppy backpass and exquisitely lobbed the keeper to make it 2-0, to the fans delight and manager Steven Gerrard's too.

Five minutes later though and Kyiv's pressure paid off where Vitaly Buyalskiy pulled one back late on with a great header from a Ruben corner and it made the second leg interesting, that is if it had stayed 2-1 but Dwight Gayle yet again popped up with his second of the match to give Villa a strong 3-1 victory.

The second leg in Ukraine was a tense pre match with Kyiv's Sergiy Rebrov saying that Villa were there for the taking and that he was going to field an ultra attack side because of Villa's vulnerabilities away from home.


Rebrov claimed that Villa were there for the taking

Villa, though in front of over 46,000 fans started like a train and within eight minutes Villa had destroyed Kyiv's game plan and went 2-0 up in no time at all. The first Villa goal came from a Moussa Dembele cross for Grealish of all people to hit a scorching volley and made it 1-0 on the night.

Then Jamie Vardy hit the second with a crisp left footed effort into the bottom left hand corner and Villa led 5-1 on aggregate and the Kyiv fans looked as shell shocked as there manager and players did.

Although Garmash got one back, it was all Villa and at half time they were almost guaranteed progression, if there was any doubt before, then when Traore scored an absolute stunning goal when he picked up a pass from O'Hare and skinned four players before curling a delightful ball into the top right hand corner to make 6-2 on aggregate and although Kyiv got two goals back Aston Villa safely progressed.


Traore hit the third goal to seal the deal for Villa

Aston Villa landed Dortmund, Salzberg and Zenit in group D and it is a group that Villa should progress in. Celtic landed the hardest group having to face off against Barcelona, Chelsea and A.C. Milan.

Villa Make Deadline Day Deals

Benin forward Rudy Gestede has today became Torino's club record signing after leaving Aston Villa for the Italian side. Gestede, who had only really been a bit part player for Villa manager Steven Gerrard, will now have the expectations of a club on his shoulders after moving for £6,250,000 as Torino have lost the two opening matches of the Serie A season after a strong 8th place last season. Gestede made 28 appearances for Villa but 18 of those were from the bench, he did however manage to score 10 goals and we expect him to do well in Italy.


Gestede has departed Villa

Rudy Gestede has not been the only player to leave with midfielder Joe Bennett moving to Wolves for £100,000. Bennett had not made an appearance for Villa in 2 years so jumped at the chance to move to Wolves. Alan Hutton has also gone out on loan to St. Johnstone for the rest of the season.

Villa Sign Four!

Bolasie moves to Villa for £18m
Villa fans were made to wait a month and a half for signings but they got four in the space of 4 hours today! The first signing that manager Steven Gerrard announced was Yannick Bolasie, who comes in for a fee of £18,000,000 and is seen as quite a coup for The Villains, who beat off competition from Man Utd and Juventus for the Congolese attacking midfielder.

Bolasie, who became a real fans favourite at Selhurst Park had this tosay on his move to the Midlands, I wanted to go to a place that could offer me Champions League football and Villa can and it is upto the team to make sure this is a regular occurrence for this massive club. I am very happy to be here and to play my football here, I hope that the fans really warm to me and make me feel welcome.

Bolasie has signed a five year deal worth £77,000 a week to play for The Villans.


Ince becomes Villa'ssecond deadline day signing
He wasn't the only signing though as Villa signed two Englishman and a Norweigen. They splashed out £7,000,000 for Tom Ince, who was signed from Derby an to be honest, it is about time a premier league side took a punt on him and Villa have. Manager Steven Gerrard praised the fact that Ince wanted to come and fight for a place in the first team.

He has the right sort of attitude to go far. This lad deserves a break and if he can show me that he can perform when I just chuck him into matches then he could cement a place. I do ask a lot of my wingers which is why I have so many because I trust every player that I have and use them fairly.


Bennett also joins Villa

Also joining Ince is former Norwich winger Elliott Bennett, who joins for a fee of £1,500,000 and is looking to really get his career back on track as at Norwich it had become almost non-existant. The Englishman, who actually played 21 times for Norwich in the Premier League last season will now get a unlikely chance at Champions League football and this just shows how many wingers Steven Gerrard believes that he needs as he joins Bolasie, Grealish, Elmohamedy, Traore and Joel Campbell in the first team.



Finally Villa have signed Norweigen striker Joshua King from Bournemouth for just £700,000, he will become Villa's sixth recognized striker with 5 competing for the starting slot alongside Dwight Gayle.

Villa's cheque book has firmly shut now with the club looking to win the Premier League title this season.

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