Aston Villa took control of their Uefa Cup first round tie against nine-man Litex Lovech after coming from behind to win 3-1.
Reo-Coker, Barry and Petrov on target against nine-man Bulgarians
Aston Villa took control of their Uefa Cup first round tie against nine-man Litex Lovech after coming from behind to win 3-1 in Bulgaria.
Martin O'Neill's side took time to find their stride on a sodden pitch before making their numerical advantage count in the closing stages.
Litex had taken a surprise 10th minute lead when Ivelin Popov's free-kick from the left evaded everyone in the area and crept inside Brad Friedel's far post.
Gareth Barry was unfortunate to have a header disallowed for offside before Nigel Reo-Coker capitalised on a defensive mix-up to equalise in first-half injury-time.
The hosts had Cedric Cambon sent off on the hour mark for two yellow cards in the space of seven minutes before Mihail Venkov was dismissed for beating the ball away with his hand on 72 minutes.
Skipper Barry tucked home the resulting penalty on his 400th club appearance and Bulgarian midfielder Stiliyan Petrov grabbed an injury-time third for Villa.
Constant menace
Litex's Brazilian-influenced midfield dictated the opening period and they might have added to Popov's curling free-kick which opened the scoring in the 10th minute.
It was a disastrous beginning to the Midlands club's first foray into Europe for seven years as Reo-Coker was adjudged to have bundled over Sandrinho on the right-hand edge of the Aston Villa area.
Captain Popov stepped up and curled the free-kick around a posse of bodies and into the far corner, to leave Villa goalkeeper Friedel motionless.
The hosts totally bossed the opening exchanges, in fact, the dangerous Tom a constant menace from the right.
Villa began upping the level of their performance and it was Petrov who began to disrupt the home attacks with regularity. From one such breakdown, Villa launched a counter from which they thought they had levelled.
Petrov put lone striker Gabriel Agbonlahor away down the left flank and when James Milner joined in, to cut back onto his right foot, he found Barry with his centre only for a contentious offside decision against Craig Gardner to nullify his glancing header as the ball nestled in the corner of the net.
Yet Litex, currently second in their domestic league, still carried a serious threat of their own, proved when the lively Tom fed the overlapping Dudu on the left, whose first-time strike was well held by Friedel.
They might have been two goals ahead when Martin Laursen's stumble put Wilfred Niflore into a good position in the final minute of the half but he could only hit the side-netting after rounding Friedel.
Moments later the game swung as Reo-Coker capitalised on Golubovic's moment of madness to sidefoot in.
Litex reacted in a positive manner at the start of the second period with Niflore denied a penalty in the opening seconds when he went down under the challenge of Laursen.
Self-destruction
Reo-Coker's advanced position meant he was receiving plenty of the ball and it was one of his bursts that resulted in the first booking of the contest.
Centre-back Cambon's heavy challenge was punished with a 53rd-minute card and seven minutes later another one reduced Litex to 10 men.
Agbonlahor's pace exposed Cambon down Litex's right side and as the Villa forward pressed the accelerator, his opponent chose to haul him down in a rugby tackle.
After feigning injury on the ground for a couple of minutes, Cambon returned to his feet to see red.
The self-destruction of Litex was completed in the 70th minute when, after giving the ball away cheaply in their own half, they had a second player dismissed.
Milner seized on the chance to chip into the area and after a flick-on cleared Golubovic's leap, Venkov punched the ball off the line.
Barry's aim was true from 12 yards and Villa had completed their turnaround despite an unconvincing display.
Villa took further advantage of their numerical superiority when a flowing move put Petrov in on goal in injury-time and although Golubovic saved his first attempt, he rolled in at the second attempt.
| Litex Lovech |
Team Statistics |
Aston Villa |
| 1 |
Goals |
3 |
| 1 |
1st Half Goals |
1 |
| 2 |
Shots on Target |
6 |
| 6 |
Shots off Target |
0 |
| 2 |
Blocked Shots |
2 |
| 3 |
Corners |
0 |
| 11 |
Fouls |
18 |
| 0 |
Offsides |
3 |
| 0 |
Yellow Cards |
1 |
| 2 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 80.7 |
Passing Success |
79.8 |
| 20 |
Tackles |
23 |
| 80 |
Tackles Success |
82.6 |
| 55.8 |
Possession |
44.2 |
| 47.8 |
Territorial Advantage |
52.2 |
|
