Aston Villa’s Uefa Cup campaign came to an end as Martin O’Neill started planning for a Champions League crusade.

The Villa manager, having left an entire first XI back in Birmingham, also omitted John Carew from last night’s line-up in which Marc Albrighton and Barry Bannan, wingers aged 19, made their full debuts for the club.

Villa’s inexperienced team were far from disgraced by CSKA Moscow, going down to second-half goals from Yuri Zhirkov and Vágner Love, after last week’s 1-1 draw at Villa Park.

On the plastic pitch at the Luzhniki Stadium, Villa held their own in the first period and were still chasing to push the tie into extra time when Vágner Love, the Brazil forward who is a possible target for Everton and Chelsea in the summer, scored three minutes into stoppage time.

With no Gareth Barry, Brad Friedel, Emile Heskey, James Milner, Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Carlos Cuéllar and Stiliyan Petrov, there was every danger that Villa would resemble sitting ducks in a shooting gallery. But Albrighton and Bannan gave accomplished displays.

At least there was strength in defence where Luke Young, deputising as captain, Zat Knight, Curtis Davies and Nicky Shorey kept CSKA at bay for 61 minutes. Then Davies was adjudged to have fouled Milos Krasic and Alan Dzagoev teed up Zhirkov for a thunderous drive from the edge of the area that flew through a crowd of players and inside Brad Guzan’s left-hand post.

With Villa attempting to rally, Vágner Love scored with virtually the last kick of the game. “I’m disappointed we’ve gone out of the competition,” O’Neill said. “But we’ve played a lot of games this year, 11 or 12 more than we did throughout the whole of last season.

“It’s not a decision that was taken lightly, and if I had thought of playing just young players then we would not have travelled here on Tuesday, stayed the three nights and gone back on Friday. Circumstances forced me into making my decision, and whilst I am disappointed, I’ll have to see what the rest of the season brings to see if that disappointment is worsened.”

O’Neill praised the “strong play” of his team that has put them in their present position, adding that they didn’t want to give it up lightly.

“Given another opportunity, something this football club should be able to obtain, I think the experiences we have had, from July [with the Intertoto Cup], will stand this team in good stead,” he said.

CSKA Moscow (4-4-1-1): I Akinfeev — V Berezutsky, S Ignashevich, A Berezutsky, G Shennikov — M Krasic, E Rahimic, D Semberas, Y Zhirkov — A Dzagoev — Vágner Love. Substitutes not used: Y Pomazan, C Odiah, D Carvalho, P Mamaev, E Caner, Ramón, Ricardo Jesus. Booked: Dzagoev.

Aston Villa (4-3-3): B Guzan — L Young, Z Knight, C Davies (sub: I Osbourne, 84), N Shorey — C Gardner, M Salifou (sub: M Harewood, 46min), S Sidwell — M Albrighton, N Delfouneso, B Bannan. Substitutes not used: S Taylor, E Lichaj, C Clark, S Lowry. Booked: Bannan, Albrighton.