Aston Villa may live to regret not finishing in the top two places in their Uefa Cup group after being drawn to meet CSKA Moscow in the round of 32 yesterday. The cold Russian weather in February, the plastic pitch at the Luzhniki Stadium, the long-distance logistics and possible visa problems for their fans are perhaps the least of their worries.

CSKA not only won the competition in 2005, they also progressed into the knockout phase with four wins in four matches in group H, the only team to go through with a perfect record. Villa’s glimmer of hope is that CSKA could be short of match practice because the 2009 Russian league season will not have started.

The winter break is a topic close to the heart of Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, who experienced it in the Scottish league, when he managed Celtic, and would like to see it implemented in England.

“It would be fantastic,” he said. “I believe it would give everyone a lift in January. People assume that it causes loss of impetus, but that’s absolutely not the case. It’s a tough draw against CSKA and it will be exceptionally difficult. When it comes around, we will be giving it plenty of thought.”

If Villa defeat CSKA, they could face another trek to Eastern Europe or a slightly shorter trip to North London. In the draw for the last 16, which was also made in Nyon, Switzerland, yesterday, they will play the winners of the tie between Shakhtar Donetsk, from Ukraine, and Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham finished second in group D and were destined to face a third-placed side from the Champions League. Shakhtar showed their capabilities in their final group C match in the elite competition by beating an albeit severely depleted Barcelona side 3-2 at the Nou Camp.

Manchester City, who won group A despite losing 3-1 away to Racing Santander on Thursday night, will take on Copenhagen in the last 32. They could face further opposition from Denmark in the last 16 because, if they defeat Copenhagen, they have been drawn to play Aalborg or Deportivo La Coruña.

“They are all tough games at this stage,” Mark Hughes, the City manager, said. “It’s one of the tougher draws we could have had, but we did what we needed to do to avoid teams like AC Milan and Valencia and that was to top our group. So we’re pleased with that.”