Hodgson faces tricky night in Turkey as Villa get a nasty sense of déjà vu
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Your support makes all the difference.Liverpool will will return to the country which hosted their dramatic 2005 Champions League triumph for the Europa League play-off round after drawing Turkish team Trabzonspor.
Five years after beating Milan on penalties to lift the European Cup, the Reds face a less glamorous tie against the Süper Lig side. Roy Hodgson's side will meet their opponents from Trabzon, who have won the Turkish league six times but not since 1984, at Anfield on 19 August and at the 20,000-capacity Huseyin Avni Aker Stadium one week later.
The sides have met just once before: in the second round of the 1976-77 European Cup, with Trabzonspor winning the first leg 1-0 only for Liverpool to prevail 3-0 in the return with Steve Heighway, David Johnson and Kevin Keegan on target. Liverpool went on to win the first of their five European Cups, with the most recent arriving in Istanbul in 2005.
Aston Villa face a repeat of last season's Europa League play-off after being drawn against Rapid Vienna. Austria's most successful club, with 32 championship wins, progressed to the group stage on away goals at the expense of Martin O'Neill's side. Villa lost the first leg 1-0 before slumping to a 2-1 defeat in the second leg at Villa Park.
O'Neill had a premonition that Villa would face Rapid once more and is predicting a challenging tie. "We had the feeling beforehand that we'd probably find ourselves drawn against Rapid Vienna again," he said.
"As proved to be the case last year, this will be a difficult assignment against difficult opposition. But we are looking forward to the game and we will try to do our best to qualify for the group stage.
"This won't be easy because Rapid was as tough a draw as we could have encountered, but we'll be ready to go," O'Neill added.
Manchester City should enjoy a comfortable passage into the group stage after drawing the Romanian team Timisoara, who were only established in 2002 and finished fifth in their domestic league last season.
The City manager, Roberto Mancini, is not expecting an easy ride, however. "It will be a difficult game and any team from Romania will provide stiff opposition, particularly on their own ground," he said.
Europa League Draw
*Play-offs, selected ties:
Liverpool v Trabzonspor
Celtic v Utrecht
Dundee United v AEK Athens
Rapid Vienna v Aston Villa
CSKA Sofia v TNS
OB Odense v Motherwell
FC Timisoara v Manchester City
*Ties to be played 19 and 26 August
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