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It may appear a shade incongruous, bizarre even, but one of the most protracted, most talked about and, potentially, most expensive transfer deals of the summer should reach a conclusion in this small football outpost tonight. If, as expected, Gareth Barry sets foot on the pitch at the Laugardalsvöllur Stadium, the possible move of the Aston Villa midfield player to Liverpool is likely to be off.

Should Barry play, even as a 90th-minute substitute, against FH Hafnarfjördur in the first leg of the Uefa Cup second qualifying round tie, he will become ineligible to take part in the Champions League until the knockout stages in February. A still persistent Liverpool would then be parting with £18million, Villa's asking price, for a player who would be unable to appear in Europe for six months.

Rules and regulations apart, it appeared last night that Barry had decided to stay with Villa, anyway. He asked to travel with the squad to Iceland yesterday, wants to play this evening and seems to have pledged his immediate future to the club.

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Martin O'Neill, the Villa manager, sounded as upbeat about the whole sorry saga as he has been in many weeks after John Robertson, his assistant, and Steve Walford, the first-team coach, spoke with Barry on Tuesday and relayed the news to him.

“Gareth was more than unsettled last week,” O'Neill said. “But he now says he's absolutely right, he's ready to play and he wanted to come and join us. That's particularly pleasing.

“I don't know if it's an end to it [the transfer]. Any time that we seem to think that we've put an end to something, we just seem to start it. If players are mentally right and they're really good players - and Gareth Barry is - I wouldn't have any hesitation in picking him. He's right to play and that's terrific.”

O'Neill, who is expected to give a first competitive start to Nicky Shorey, the £3.5million signing from Reading, at left back, has given warning against complacency. Villa scraped through to this tie 3-2 on aggregate against OB Odense, the Danish club, in the Intertoto Cup third round. “We had great difficulty against Odense,” O'Neill said. “I hope that we are fitter now and I know that these games are not easy. We made great efforts to get into Europe and we don't want to give it up lightly.”

FH Hafnarfjördur (possible; 4-5-1): G Sigurdsson - H Eiriksson, T Nielsen, F Bjarnason, H Valgardsson - A Gudnason, D Siim, BD Sverrisson, D Vidarsson, T Gudmundsson - A Björnsson.

Aston Villa (probable; 4-4-2): B Friedel - C Gardner, Z Knight, M Laursen, N Shorey - M Petrov, G Barry, N Reo-Coker, A Young - G Agbonlahor, J Carew.

Referee: R Matejek (Czech Republic).

Television: Live on Five from 6.50pm (kick-off 7pm).