Slavia lose to Aston Villa in first UEFA Cup group game

Slavia Prague lost 1:0 to England’s Aston Villa in their first group stage game in football’s UEFA Cup on Thursday night. In an entertaining match, the visitors went ahead on 26 minutes after a Steve Sidwell shot took a deflection off John Carew to leave the Slavia goalkeeper Martin Vaniak stranded. Vaniak made a couple of important saves before his team mates rallied in the second half, though they were unable to convert any of a number of chances to draw level. Over 20,000 fans attended the game at Slavia’s new Eden stadium.