English TV abandons coverage of Aston Villa Uefa Cup tie

Martin O'Neill, however, insists that such an assumption would be wide of the mark. The Villa manager's decision to downgrade the competition in favour of their Premier League campaign – made plain by the fact that only three of the usual starting line-up, the defenders Curtis Davies, Zat Knight and Luke Young, have travelled – has been mirrored by the television companies.  Related ArticlesTop 10 football superstitionsITV pull in 4m viewers for CupOther TV Highlights: Wednesday 18 FebruaryUefa Cup: Crazy kick-off times and TV guideCSKA Moscow put Aston Villa's Uefa Cup aspirations to bedNewcastle United see off Aston Villa thanks to Obafemi Martins doubleChannel Five, who broadcast the first leg 1-1 draw at Villa Park, have opted not to show tonight's second leg, insisting that the early kick-off of 5pm would cause disruptions to their regular schedule of Neighbours and Home and Away. Although he has left his box-office players back in England, O'Neill does not expect those he has taken to Russia to roll over easily. "You hear talk and you'd think we are beaten already," O'Neill said. "That wouldn't be my view. It will be difficult of course. It would have been even if we went with every single player in the squad. But we will try and win the game. "We have some really capable players – as we showed in Prague. We are not giving it up. People are sounding very defeatist but we will go there to win, although I accept the advantage is with Moscow."One of the major advantages that CSKA hold over Villa is their familiarity with the artificial pitch at the Luzhniki Stadium. "It's a major advantage to the teams playing on it all the time," O'Neill said. "We will only get to train on it once, but we will just have to get on with it." Aston Villa (probable, 4-4-2): Guzan; L Young, Knight, Davies, Shorey; Gardner, Salifou, Sidwell, Bannan; Delfouneso, Carew. CSKA Moscow (probable, 4-4-2): Akinfeev; A Berezutsky, Ignashevich, V Berezutskiy, Shchennikov; Krasich, Rahimic, Aldonin, Zhirkov; Dzagoev, Love.  

Source: Telegraph