UEFA Cup - Villa lucky to beat Litex

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Aston Villa struggled to victory on their first ever visit to Bulgaria as they beat nine-man Litex Lovech 3-1 in their UEFA Cup first round first leg.
  














A goal from Nigel Reo-Coker, a penalty from captain Gareth Barry and a last-minute strike from Stilian Petrov overturned the deficit following Ivelin Popov's opener, virtually killing off the tie.
In front of a small but partisan home crowd, Litex had the better of the opening exchanges, with their Brazilian trio of Tome, Dudu and Sandrinho showing any doubters that the Bulgarian League holds plenty of class.
They made that dominance count when Popov curled in an 11th-minute free-kick that was searching for a glancing header from a team-mate, but instead the ball missed everyone and snuck in at the bottom corner past an unsighted Brad Friedel, prompting the home crowd to celebrate to the sounds of Gary Glitter's 'Leader of the Gang' from the stadium's PA system.
Villa - missing the key attacking duo of striker John Carew and winger Ashley Young, as well as centre-back Curtis Davies - continued to struggle for the rest of the half, and it was only a slice of fortune that got them on level terms just before the half-time whistle.
Litex goalkeeper Golubovic sprinted off his line to clear away a long ball, but succeeded only in canoning the ball off a nearby defender, leaving Reo-Coker to tap into the empty net from the edge of the box for his second goal of the week.
Martin O'Neill's side felt they should have been level midway through the half, when Barry headed home from James Milner's cross. However, the referee's assistant held his flag up to indicate that Craig Gardner was offside at the far post.
The second half began in much the same vain as the first, with the Bulgarian's playing with guile and confidence against a side that were looking increasingly out of sorts.
The teams were then subject to a significant reversal of fortune when - having already had defender Cedric Cambon sent off for two bookings on the hour-mark - Litex defender Mihail Venkov handballed on the goal-line to earn himself a straight red card and reduce his team to nine men. Barry blasted the spot-kick home.
The tie was virtually ended as a contest in second-half injury time, when Villa's Bulgarian midfielder Stilian Petrov scored from a rebound after his first shot was saved.
Litex performed commendably to resist Villa attacks before finally succumbing to Petrov's injury-time goal. Had they kept the deficit to one-goal, they could have travelled to Villa Park for the second leg confident of pushing their illustrious opponents all the way.