Match report: Europa League - Rapid Vienna 1 Aston Villa 1
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Rapid Vienna's Veli Kavlak, right, and Villa's Eric Lichaj challenge for the ball.
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Rapid Vienna's Thomas Hinum, right, and Villa's Nigel Reo-Coker, left, and Barry Bannan challenge for the ball.
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Rapid Vienna's Markus Heikkinen, right, and Villa's Nigel Reo-Coker challenge for the ball as Jonathan Hogg, left, looks on .
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Brad Guzan makes a save.
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Rapid Vienna's Atdhe Nuhiu, left, and Villa's Eric Lichaj challenge for the ball.
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Barry Bannan, left, and Stewart Downing celebrate Villa's goal.
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The Villa boys celebrate Barry Bannan's goal.
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Rapid Vienna's Thomas Hinum, left, and Veli Kavlak, right, challenge Emile Heskey for the ball.
Europa League qualifying round, first leg: Rapid Vienna 1 Aston Villa 1
Now that Kevin MacDonald’s “calculated gamble” has paid off maybe it’s time for Villa to take another and give by far and away the leading candidate the full-time job.
MacDonald admitted there was an element of risk in entrusting the claret and blue understudies to kick off Villa’s European campaign in Vienna last night.
But so far the temporary team-picker’s two major judgment calls – selecting James Milner on Saturday and leaving a string of star names behind for yesterday – have paid off spectacularly well.
Another positive performance and the right result at Newcastle on Sunday and Randy Lerner might as well unveil MacDonald as Martin O’Neill’s long-term successor on Monday morning.
Despite returning to Vienna almost exactly a year to the day since their last qualifying-stage visit, a certain Russian city was mentioned more than the Austrian capital ahead of the game.
Leaving Stiliyan Petrov, Ashley Young and Luke Young at home, as well as six unavailable senior stars and new signing Stephen Ireland, was reminiscent of Villa’s Moscow misadventure.
But Marc Albrighton, Barry Bannan and Co are much more mature than they were when they made their debuts on that infamous night at CSKA Moscow 18 months ago.
Last night’s debutants Eric Lichaj and Jonathan Hogg are also growing up fast. These lads are no longer ‘hopefuls’, they’re fully-fledged first-team squad members.
