Villa switch UEFA Cup Cup clash and will play second leg at home - Sport - Evening Standard
       

Villa switch UEFA Cup Cup clash and will play second leg at home

will now have home advantage in the second leg of their UEFA Cup clash with FH Hafnarfjordur after UEFA officials agreed to reverse the tie.

Originally Villa were due to host the first leg on August 14 with the second clash taking place in Iceland on August 28.

Minnows Hafnarfjordur were apparently keen to stage the first leg to guarantee a decent sized crowd for the visit of their Barclays Premier League opponents - which may not have been the case had they been well beaten at Villa Park.

Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill will hope his side can progress in the UEFA Cup last season

Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill will hope his side can progress in the UEFA Cup last season

It will be Villa's first UEFA Cup clash for seven years since they were beaten by Croatian side NK Varteks at the start of the 2000-01 campaign.

Meanwhile, Villa were this morning heading to Spain for a pre-season training camp.

Villa manager Martin O'Neill is hoping to arrange two training games in preparation for the UEFA Cup clash.

O'Neill said: 'We had a situation where we had set aside this coming Saturday for Gareth Barry's testimonial. That obviously is in abeyance.

'So we'll get ourselves abroad for a little while and arrange some games to get ourselves prepared for the first leg of the UEFA Cup qualifier.'

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