Manchester City and Aston Villa will be confident of progressing in the Uefa Cup later this month after receiving draws against little-known opponents yesterday in the second qualifying round of the competition.

City will face FC Midtjylland, who finished second in the Danish Super League last season, at home on Thursday week before the second leg at the SAS Arena in Herning on August 28.

Like Mark Hughes’s team, Villa have been drawn to play the first leg of their tie, against FH Hafnarfjardar, of Iceland, at home. But, along with their opponents, the Midlands club have requested that the legs of the tie be switched, with the away leg taking place in Iceland on August 14 and the return at Villa Park a fortnight later.

Unlike Villa, City have to negotiate a fixture clash with the second leg, which is in the same week as the second round of the Carling Cup. While the eight English clubs who qualified for Europe were given byes to the third round, City’s inclusion in the Uefa Cup via the Fair Play league was not similarly rewarded.

Villa’s last European campaign ended in embarrassment seven years ago when John Gregory, the former manager, fielded a weakened team in the first leg at home to NK Varteks, of Croatia, and they were unable to overhaul a 3-2 deficit in the away leg. Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, is adamant that his team will not underestimate Hafnarfjardar after they defeated OB Odense in the Intertoto Cup.

“We had two tough games against Odense and now we are determined to do as well as possible,” O’Neill said. “The fans showed last week they have an appetite for European football.”

City overcame EB/Streymur, of the Faeroe Isles, 4-0 on aggregate to reach the second qualifying round, although Midtjylland, 10-1 aggregate victors over Bangor City in the previous round, should provide a stiffer test.

Uefa Cup draw

Southern section Siroki Brijeg v Besiktas; Braga v Zrinjski; Lokomotiv Sofia v Borac Cacak; Aris Salonika v Slaven Belupo Koprivnica; Omonia Nicosia v AEK Athens; Vllaznia Shkoder v Napoli; APOEL Nicosia v Red Star Belgrade; DeportÍvo La Coruña v Hajduk Split; Litex Lovech v Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona; Vojvodina Novi Sad v Hapoel Tel Aviv; Maccabi Netanya v Cherno More Varna. Central-East section VfB Stuttgart v Gyor ETO; FC Zurich v Sturm Graz; Lech Poznan v Grasshoppers; Slovan Liberec v Zilina; Metalurgs Liepaja v Vaslui; Young Boys v Debrecen; WIT Georgia Tbilisi v Austria Vienna; Suduva Marijampole v Salzburg; Interblock Ljubljana v Hertha Berlin; Legia Warsaw v FC Moscow; Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk v AC Bellinzona. Northern section Djurgarden v Rosenborg Trondheim; Manchester City v Midtjylland; FC Honka v Viking Stavanger; Queen of the South v Nordsjaelland; Ghent v Kalmar; Aston Villa v FH Hafnarfjardar; Stabaek v Stade Rennes; Haka Valkeakoski v Brondby; FC Copenhagen v Lillestrom; Elfsborg Boras v St Patrick’s Athletic.

First legs August 14 Second legs August 28