Bosnich keeps Villa in it

Aston Villa weathered a ferocious, first-half battering last night, thanks to Mark Bosnich's ability and bravery, and their first European semi-final for 16 years remains a possibility.

Bosnich's brilliance - he was beaten only by a 41st-minute penalty from Christian Vieri - and a stout, second-half recovery gives John Gregory's side hope of upsetting Atletico Madrid in the return leg in a fortnight.

Having rallied the troops last Saturday against Liverpool, Gregory's task here was to deploy them effectively, their major brief no doubt being the smothering of supply to Atletico's prolific front pair, Kiko and Vieri.

To that end Julian Joachim, who had played the full 90 minutes on Saturday, was put on the bench and in his place Mark Draper returned from a three-match absence through injury.

Steve Staunton, still not fully fit, gave way to Riccardo Scimeca, but otherwise Villa's formation was as expected and they immediately strung a white line of five across the midfield.

Atletico, with players changing places, were fluid and unpredictable by comparison, although one thing was certain: Vieri was the main threat.

As early as the second minute the Italian centre-forward found yards of space behind Ugo Ehiogu and it needed a smart save from Bosnich low to his left to prevent embarrassment.

Soon after that Bosnich had to tip over a Vieri backward header, and Vieri finally seemed to have scored at the third attempt in the 11th minute but instead was rightly booked for punching the ball in with his forearm.

With Villa's only release valve being Simon Grayson, wide on the right, it all amounted to a highly pressured and fraught opening 20 minutes.

It took Villa another five minutes to put together a move of equal coherence, but once Alan Wright and Dwight Yorke combined on the left and Stan Collymore helped the ball on, Lee Hendrie was presented with a plausible scoring chance. However, from 18 yards out his shot sailed over.

The football resumed its one-way pattern thereafter, and only another three excellent saves from Bosnich kept out, first, Vieri, then Carlos Aguilera and then Jose Marie.

Bosnich was also booked for time-wasting, but the Villa goalkeeper was having an inspired evening and in the 40th minute made his best stop so far in rebuffing Andrei's full-throttle header after another dangerous corner from Mininko Pantic. Unfortunately for Bosnich, though, the ricochet fell to Jose Caminero, who was up-ended by Ehiogu before he could shoot.

Vieri took the penalty and even then Bosnich managed to get a hand to the ball, but it crept inside the post and Atletico at last had their deserved advantage.

Staunton had come on for Scimeca in the hiatus before Vieri's penalty, and, after the interval, the Irish international began to deliver the kind of diagonal passes with which Caminero and Pantic had been tormenting the English midlanders.

Villa now appeared a more solid and composed unit, and before the hour created a genuinely threatening situation when Hendrie skipped on to Wright's clever chip and beat one man only to be thwarted by Andrei before being able to sneak in a shot.

Obviously encouraged by that, Villa then had their clearest scoring opportunity yet. Draper, much livelier than before, initiated it with a sliding pass inside Toni which enabled Grayson to seek out Yorke loitering two yards inside the Atletico area. Yorke rather scuffed his attempted drive but it landed nicely at the feet of Joachim, who had just replaced Collymore. It seemed Joachim must hit the back of the net, but Molina rushed from his line and blocked impressively.

Atletico Madrid: Molina, Toni, Andrei, Santi, Vizcaino, Vieri, Pantic (Nimy 74), Jose Marie (Paunovic 60), Aguilera, Kiko, Caminero. Subs Not Used: Fede, Futre, Geli, Diaz, Jaro. Booked: Vieri, Aguilera. Goals Vieri 42 pen.

Aston Villa: Bosnich, Southgate, Ehiogu, Taylor, Draper, Yorke, Collymore (Joachim 50), Wright, Grayson, Hendrie, Scimeca (Staunton 41). Subs Not Used: Charles, Nelson, Oakes, Collins, Davis. Booked: Draper, Bosnich, Ehiogu, Hendrie.

Referee: S Braschi (Italy).