There has been a note hanging outside the official Rapid fan shop since Monday at 1:15pm: ‚SOLD OUT!‘ . 17 800 fans (of those about 300 have travelled from Birmingham) will be in the Hanappi stadium (live on skrapid.at/ORF 1 will show the game as their main feature, with highlights from the Austria Wien and Sturm Graz matches inbetween). Aston Villa will be the prized guest in Hütteldorf. Villa team manager Martin O'Neill, who has travelled to Vienna with the following squad, has the utmost respect for the team from Hütteldorf: ‘Rapid is a really fine footballing side, excellent with the ball and with enough ability to cause us problems going forward.‘‚Whoever finishes sixth in the Premier League cannot be a weak opponent‘However Peter Pacult makes it quite clear who is the favourite and who is the outsider. ‚Whoever finishes in 6th position in the Premier League cannnot be a weak opponent. We are definitely the outsider, but it will be down to us to create chances,‘ was Pacult’s comment. The green-whites are especially aware of the danger down the wings through Ashley Young (left) and James Milner (right). The English team also has a very experienced goalkeeper in the 38 year old Bradley Friedel.‚Rapid has always managed to write history in the European Cup‘Peter Pacult is confident in his team that they can achieve things, even though they will have to cope with the danger from the wings and the opponent’s experienced players. ‚Rapid has always managed to write history in the European Cup‘. And anything is possible with this crowd behind them. Rangvald Soma replied to the question  about what he knew about the green-whites right from the start: ‚I heard that Rapid has one of the best set of fans in Europe.‘ This is something that the Rapid fans will certainly want to confirm, because ‚Aston Villa will face a raucous crowd in the Hanappi stadium‘, as Club-Service Manager Andy Marek re-iterated.‚I prefer to play in a small, sold out stadium‘Aston Villa had their final pre-match training session at 7pm. The first 15 minutes were open training for the media and other interested parties. Half an hour before training Martin O’Neill and his captain Stiliyan Petrov arrived a little later than expected to face the home and English press. O’Neill did not hold back his praise for the Austrian record titleholders: ‚Rapid is a very good team and they are especially strong in attack. We have a lot of respect for this team and it will be very difficult for us.‘ The manager from Northern Ireland does not see his team as the favourites for this tie. The 57 year old explained this as follows: ‚I don’t see that we have any advantage at the moment and to add to that Rapid has played more competitive matches so far this season.‘The Birmingham team came to Vienna with a squad of 22 players. Rapid do not have Branko Boskovic, Veli Kavlak (both recovering from injury) and Stefan Maierhofer (suspended) available.(pc/chb)
31.08.2015