Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: Mike Field 
Date:Tuesday October 21 2008
Time: 5:46PM
UK time is: 08:47:31
Choose your club
Other Sites
Network Navigation
Vital Partners
'If It's Football, It's Vital'
Villa Need To Battle In 'Group of Death'
Brad Friedel has said UEFA Cup and our group especially will be just as strong as the Champions League this season.
And he was adamant we will have to be ready if we expect to get anything out of Thursdays match against Ajax.
"It`s going to be fantastic. We are all really looking forward to it.
"This year, for some reason, when you saw the teams in the UEFA Cup, it mirrors some of the Champions League fixtures.
"You look at the likes of AC Milan, Deportivo, Valencia and Seville and then in our group, with having Hamburg and Ajax, they have both won the competition in the past and both play in the Champions League quite often.
"Zilina are a good side too and Slavia Prague are consistently in the Champions League as well. So it is a very good group and a very exciting group."
Friedel believes we must get the first win behind our belts if we hope to make an impact in the Cup this season.
"It would be nice to get three points to begin with to give us momentum but this time around, as opposed to when I played in the group stages with Blackburn, there are no easy games.
"You cannot bank on three points, you have to get out there and do the work.
"There are going to be a lot of teams taking points off other teams all along, and I think it is going to be really tight. So if we can get off the mark with three points against Ajax that would be brilliant."
Vital F1 Prediction League - Join now for Monaco
Your Comments
Easy games when he played with Rovers?!? Sorry Brad but Nancy, Salzburg, Wisla Krakow, Feyenoord and Basle were hardly easy!!!
Mikey D
just as strong as the CL - he's havin a larf!
merlin
Go on then Merlin, i'll bite - I don't think he quite said that - and I think he's making a fairly reasonable point. We're talking about teams like AC Milan, Deportivo, Valencia, Seville, Hamburg and Ajax. There's some definite Champions League quality there. Looking at the current Champions League Groups & you've got the mighty CFR Kluj in there...as well as Celtic (ahem), let alone some of the dross you've gotten rid of in the qualifying stages. There'll be some cracking quality games in the UEFA for sure. Of course we'd rather be in with the big boys though....
YatesyVillain
We all know the champions league is better, but I must admit Merlin, I don't think you're champions league group is any more difficult than our UEFA cup group. Hamburg and Ajax are better than CFR Kluj and Bordeaux.Roma's your only difficult opponent and they got stomped by Tottenham in preseason 5-0, and they've got two points!!! ; ). Slavia Prague and CFR Kluj are even stevens I reckon as well. So we may not be with the champs quite yet, but the quality surely is there.
los_angeles_villan
there are no easy games... how easily that line trips off the tongue.
Is this Brad getting the excuses in before a ball is kicked or is this Brad being honest.
col8
If I know Brad like we do at Rovers he is just an honest guy TBH.
Mikey D
Slavia Prague are a pretty decent outfit los_angeles_villan, they'll certainly give us a thorough testing, particularly with the game in Prague, but I know where you're coming from.
glensider
Not exactly sure if it can be classed as a 'Group Of Death', despite it including three previous European club champions. Will be tricky though, no doubting that, particularly Hamburg away.
glensider
Have Your Say
Recent Articles
Petrov Delighted With Assistant Coach Role (Wednesday May 22 2013)
Broadcasting Revenue For AVFC For 2012/13 Season (Wednesday May 22 2013)
N'Zogbia Exit And £5m Given To Keeper? (Wednesday May 22 2013)
Villa's Pre Season Schedule (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Vlaar Pleased With First Good Touch Of The Game (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Villa Season Ticket Help Sessions (Tuesday May 21 2013)
They Think It's All Over - Not Yet - Soccer Sevens (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Vital Villa Man Of The Match v Wigan (Tuesday May 21 2013)
The Aston Villa Summer Transfer Thread Pt 1 (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Brentford Midfielder Linked (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Archived Articles
Vital Members League (view all)
| 1. | Pride of Lions | 981 |
| 2. | The Fear | 758 |
| 3. | BodyButter | 500 |
| 4. | kefkat | 403 |
| 5. | CDX_EIRE | 328 |
| 6. | ClivetheVillan | 292 |
| 7. | Villan57 | 244 |
| 8. | thefacehead | 241 |
| 9. | DeanoVilla | 217 |
| 10. | mike_field | 194 |
League Results (view all)
| Latest Results | ||||
| Wigan | 2 | - | 2 | Aston Villa |
| Aston Villa | 1 | - | 2 | Chelsea |
| Norwich | 1 | - | 2 | Aston Villa |
| Aston Villa | 6 | - | 1 | Sunderland |
| Man Utd | 3 | - | 0 | Aston Villa |
| Aston Villa | 1 | - | 1 | Fulham |
League Table (view table)
| Team | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
| 12. Fulham | 38 | 11 | 10 | 17 | -10 | 43 |
| 13. Stoke | 38 | 9 | 15 | 14 | -11 | 42 |
| 14. Southampton | 38 | 9 | 14 | 15 | -11 | 41 |
| 15. Aston Villa | 38 | 10 | 11 | 17 | -22 | 41 |
| 16. Newcastle | 38 | 11 | 8 | 19 | -23 | 41 |
| 17. Sunderland | 38 | 9 | 12 | 17 | -13 | 39 |
| 18. Wigan | 38 | 9 | 9 | 20 | -26 | 36 |
Breaking League News
| PWU Wigan Athletic Podcast - End Of Season Special
» Wigan : 23/05/2013 07:00:00
|
| Bale to Stay; But where does he Play?
» Spurs : 23/05/2013 06:00:00
|
| Liverpool: Begovic To Replace Reina?
» Liverpool : 22/05/2013 20:54:00
|
| Coates thanks friend Pulis
» Stoke : 22/05/2013 18:30:00
|
| Petrov Delighted With Assistant Coach Role
» Aston Villa : 22/05/2013 16:52:00
|
| Boateng Signs Two Year Deal
» Fulham : 22/05/2013 16:50:00
|
| Sullivan Warns Of Complacency!
» West Ham : 22/05/2013 16:49:00
|
Current Site Poll (view all polls)
|
|
1 © - All content copyright Vital Network Ltd, not to be reproduced without explicit permission Copyright Issues
Cookie Policy
At Vital Football, we along with most other modern websites use small files called 'cookies' to create the most secure, effective and functional website possible for our users. Without these files our business model, based on advertising, breaks down and we would be unable to continue to provide the services that you are here to utilise. By continuing to use this website after seeing this message, you consent to our use of cookies on this device unless you have disabled them. For full details please read our Cookie Policy which can be found here. However, if you would like to disable cookies on this device, please view our Cookie Policy which contains an opt-out tool for disabling advertising cookies. Please also visit our information pages on 'How to manage cookies' if you would also like to block all other types of cookies. Please be aware that parts of this site will not function correctly if you disable cookies.