Both the Premiership sides went down tonight in their respective UEFA Cup ties. Villa edged their way through to the knockout stages despite defeat to MSK Zilina but poor Pompey got the boot thanks to James harking back to his dark days of calamitous errors. Here’s the notes on tonight’s pair of matches…
Starting in Germany and Adams tinkered once again, dropping Crouch to the bench and bringing in Mvuemba into the midfield. Defoe started alone up front then, while Kranjcar returned to the side on the right of midfield, with Traore on the left. Campbell returned from a toe injury to start alongside Distin, with Pamarot left on the bench.
It’s interesting that Adams elected for Defoe up front on his own tonight, having gone for Crouch when he last employed the 4-5-1 at Anfield. Should Adams go for a similar formation again for a tough away game, it would appear that Defoe is a better bet to start on this evidence.
Kranjcar was influential again tonight, striking the bar with a second half free kick. He looks a decent mid-price prospect in an attacking Portsmouth side over the coming weeks. Defoe was on the scoresheet to pull things level early on – there’s no doubting his potential over the Christmas period, much to the annoyance of those who sold him on as a result of the bogus calf injury. Belahdj was once again at left back and was subbed at half time as Adams introduced the more defensive Pamarot. It will be interesting to see if that factor threatens Belhadj’s starts from this point on. He certainly looked as lively as ever and he and Traore keep threatening plenty of assists down the left without producing too much. Having said that, it was Traore cross shot that was turned in on the rebound by Defoe tonight.
There will be changes for the weekend clash with West Brom – Crouch is almost certain to come back in for Mvuemba. Pamarot could also start for Campbell given that he has just returned from injury.
As for Villa, they were shocked at home by 10-man MSK Zilina, although progressed as results went their way in their group. O’Neill did invite such a result however, making eight changes in all with only Ashley Young, Luke Young and Cuellar surviving from last weekend’s lineup.
It was Young who was the chief tormentor on the night – attempting to single-handedly bring Villa back into the game once they had surprisingly fallen behind. Delfouneso also caught the eye with a performance capped by a superb goal. He could get opportunities from the bench should Carew’s injury persist. Other than that, there was little to glean from this one though, with plenty of changes to come from O’Neill for the weekend trip to Everton.