Atlante v Aston Villa: Bill Howell's big match preview

Jul 29 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O’Neill is looking for Villa to take advantage of their Peace Cup lifeline as they bid to earn a £500,000 jackpot.

His side take on in-form Mexicans Atlante tonight in the second of their Peace Cup group games after being beaten 1-0 by Malaga on Saturday.

Atlante only have to avoid a two-goal defeat to progress through to the semi-finals after a convincing 3-1 victory over hosts Malaga on Monday.

O’Neill witnessed that game and knows Villa are in for a tough test this evening but is pleased with the work put in by his troops.

“It’s been ideal,” he said. “I went to the game the other night – cheering on the Mexicans obviously.

“We need to score two goals, so at least there is an incentive there for us, which is good.

“When you think we had five players coming back on the Monday and with the best will in the world, as much as there is a bit of prize money and it would be great to get to the semi-final, I’m afraid I had to take those players off because that is all the training they had done.

“I was hoping that the senior players who played against Peterbrough and Colchester would have seen us through – the likes of Stiliyan Petrov, Ashley Young and John Carew.

“It was a pity Malaga scored at the end but what we want to do is get some fitness into the players.

“The Mexicans will not be any push-overs because they deserved to win the other night. Technically they were very good.’’

O’Neill will be looking for Villa to be far more creative against Atlante after struggling to create anything of note in their opener.

“I am looking for us to express ourselves a bit more,” O’Neill said.

“With Emile Heskey going off early we left John Carew on his own and with respect to John he would prefer to play centre-forward with a partner.

“But overall it has been terrific, particularly for the young players.

“Four days beforehand Eric Lichaj would never have thought that he would be involved, and young Marc Albrighton is getting a bit of football too.”

Heskey will face Atlante after recovering from mild concussion.

Losing semi-finalists pick up 500,000 euros, with the winner set to pocket 2 million euros and the runners-up one million euros.

* For live coverage of Atlante v Aston Villa from 7pm - click here