Wuo

Peace Cup Preview: Aston Villa - Porto

Neither side look set to front a full-strength team, but with a €2 million first prize on the line, could it all be a ruse?

Kick-Off: Friday, July 31, 2009. 22:30 CET.

La Rosaleda, Malaga

A Slow Start

Topping their table on goal difference, Aston Villa left it until the last to secure their spot in the Peace Cup semi-final.

After a poor start to the competition, losing 1-0 to Malaga, Martin O'Neill's men proved yet again that Villa can strike at any time - the Birmingham-based outfit putting three goals past Atlante with only an own goal from Curtis Davies as a reply.

You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry...

Some people - not surprisingly - wrote off Porto after the side sold off a lot of their better performers, but a 2-0 win over Lyon in their first Peace Cup game wiped the grins from a lot of doubting faces.

In light of this, last season's winners of the Portuguese league still have the services of the affectionately named Hulk, who will no doubt be looking to find the net again after a dry run in Porto's most recent match against Besiktas.

TEAM NEWS

There's some bad news for the Villans ahead of the clash, as resident string-puller Stiliyan Petrov will be sidelined. Unfortunately, the Bulgarian general dislocated his shoulder during Villa's last game with Atlante and is currently awaiting results of the subsequent scan.

O'Neill has also publically stated that he might use a host of youngsters in an attempt to give his up-and-comers some valuable experience.

In the Porto camp, Miguel Lopes and Radamel Falcao are doing recovery training and should be eligible for the tie, while Cristian Rodriguez and Sapunaru have not yet regained full fitness.

All players who started against Besiktas did not attend training on Wednesday, but instead had some light massage work.

With all of this in mind, to hazard a guess at who will be starting for either side would be an exercise in futility.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Aston Villa - Gabriel Agbonlahor: The pacy striker has yet to score in Villa's pre-season campaign. And after a slump in form at the end of last term, the England international will no doubt be looking to start notching up some goals.

Porto - Hulk: As mentioned, the Lou Ferrigno lookalike screamed two past a helpless Lyon earlier in the competition, and after failing to register a goal against Besiktas, the Brazilian powerhouse will want his fans to know that he alone can fill the void left by Lisandro Lopez.

PREDICTION

A tough one to call without a good look at the starting XIs, but one would imagine more than one goal being scored. A hard-fought game will probably end with one of the sides winning by a small margin.

Aston Villa 3 - 2 Porto

Gabby eh

Click.

Depends IMO. If we go out like we did first half against atlante, we will be murdered. If we show up like we did second half we might win.

Lichaj - 6 - I like his workrate but I have absolutely no confidence in his abilty to stop a marauding winger.

Exactly what I was thinking. Looks more like an athlete then a footballer.

Cuellar was impressive today though. Maybe he is more confident down there where he knows the locals

There was a lovely moment near the end when we were playing out time. Right under Robertson's nose Albrighton rolled a ball down towards the corner flag and the old Forest winger Robertson applauded.

Except on top of that it went to a Villa player.. Reo-Coker, Young and Cuéllar were also very impressive.

He applauded because it was a good pass. He intended on reaching Weimann with it.

Guzan - 8

Lichaj - 7

Shorey - 5

Davies - 4

Cuellar - 8

NRC - 8

Sidwell - 7

Young - 8

Albrighton - 7

Heskey - 4

Carew - 7

Maybe to nice there. NRC motm.

Think NRC was MOTM, but god we were shit the first half. Davies looked rubbish and so did Shorey.

It's easy to see how well these young lads know eachother on the pitch. Excellent movement for eachother

Someone clearing in the woods that idiot

Imagine if NRC could pass

My god Davies has been horrible

Shorey HAS to go. Sorry he simply isn't up for it.

Hehe, 3rd friendly of the season.

Nothing to do with that. He has been consistantly shit since we bought him. I was counting on him stepping up this pre-season, but he still looks shite.

He has some neat passes, not to bad going forward, but all in all he ain't good enough. Either get Bouma fit or buy a replacement.

We have been considerably better since NRC took over from Petrov in the middle

I think you have the introduction of Albrighton to thank for that

NRC just looks better in the Petrov role tbh. When he is pushed to far up the field he is clueless. Petrov is better anyway and we need a new CM, but it's nice to have a player capable to step in.

Shorey HAS to go. Sorry he simply isn't up for it.

**** me. Sub Davies off

Seriously. We need a new left back, a new CM.

Oh ****

Shorey looks shit

Good work by Cuellar there

What a stupid foul by Sidwell

I think a more interesting question is whether you would take him back. Say if a new manager comes in and Barry becomes redundant.

I personally wouldn't take him back. Good player, would make our squad stronger, but no thanks. I'd rather sign someone else.

Thread title made me instantly think of Bill Hicks lol

"What you readin for?"

I think he is. Was average for years with us, tried to move on several times. MON gave him a proper chance as a CM, made him captain, got him into the England squad. Barry tried to jump ship to Liverpool immidiatly. Lost captaincy, stayed, was made captain again, and despite all this talk about CL football he **** off to Citeh who has nothing to offer but money.

If he isn't a mercenary nobody is.

Problem is that those boring, defensive, safe, English, talentless, visionless, overpaid, underavchieving players will do better in the Premier League. We shouldn't get rid of NRC or Sidwell, we just need to add some flair and attacking class. A Merson, Zola, Bergkamp etc.

I nearly wanted to start a new thread about our utter lack of attacking ability and creativity.

I have no idea who MON will sign, but Sidwell and NRC was totally outclassed today against Spanish reserves. Zero creativity, zero ability, shit passing, no bottle. Nada.

Fair enough it's pre-season, but I thought we lacked this with Barry as well.

Have to say, we're looking shit. No creativity, shit movement, shit passing. Where Malaga makes clever passes and time their runs we are **** clueless