Aston Villa 0-0 SC Braga

Aston Villa played out a dull a goalless draw with Braga in Portugal in a game completely overshadowed by Delph's shock exit to Manchester City.

The first half was marginally better.

Gary Gardner got on the end of an Aly Cissokho but found the the arms of r Stanislav Kritsyuk early doors with Villa on the front foot.

Carles Gil found Gabriel Agbonlahor with a classy pass, but the shot was woeful.

Agbonlahor got closer with his next effort, slamming against the crossbar just before the half hour mark, but that was as close as we got.

Braga made better use of their possession after the break, and only a timely intervention from Kieran Richardson early in the second half kept Braga at bay.

Janoi Donacien  made some crucial challenges as the game wore slowly on, but enigmatic Charles N'Zogbia came closest to getting a winner..

He collected the ball on the edge of the area and hit a blistering shot against the post with 12 minutes left on the clock.

Villa could easily have lost it at the death. Libor Kozak nearly turned a Braga corner into his own net then Braga's William Pottker nearly won it with a long range strike that was heroically tipped away in the dying minutes by new signing Mark Bunn.