Hamburg 3 Aston Villa 1

Dec 18 2008 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Post

UEFA Cup, group stage: Hamburg 3 Aston Villa 1

TWO starts, two goals for Nathan Delfouneso but in the end it was verging on the embarassing for 10-man Villa as they slumped to their joint-heaviest defeat of the season to fall to third in their UEFA Cup group.

Group F was in their grasp only a few weeks ago before Slovakian minnows MSK Zilina came to town and spoiled the party.

But here their makeshift side were no match whatsoever for the fourth best team in Germany who also hit the woodwork twice.

Villa now know they will face a group winner – which possibly could be CSKA Moscow or Wolfsburg – with the home leg first.

Not since the away trip to Stoke City in August had Villa leaked three goals in a game.

Once again in European competition O’Neill made wholesale changes from the 4-2 win over Bolton on Saturday, with only three players keeping their place – defenders Luke Young and Carlos Cuellar and midfielder Steve Sidwell.

Hamburg have in-form strikers Mladen Petric and Ivica Olic leading the line and in an atmosphere befitting a cup final played in front of 50,000 they quickly set about Villa’s makeshift side.

But it was skipper for the night, Nigel Reo-Coker, who came closest to breaking the deadlock with a well-struck shot from inside the area that flashed wide after the Germans had failed to get to grips with a throw near the corner flag.

Villa were settling into their stride when they found themselves behind.

Petric controlled a huge punt down the ground from Bastian Reinhardt with an outstretched left leg.

He waited for the bounce and then thundered an unstoppable shot past Brad