Martin O'Neill fielded a weakened side, with his team having already qualified for the knock-out stages, but will still have been disappointed with the manner of the defeat - with Villa now set to face a group winner in the next round of the competition.

After a scrappy opening it was Villa who carved out the first chance when the home defence failed to clear Luke Young's long thrown in and Nigel Reo-Coker volleyed wide from 16 yards.

It was Hamburg who opened the scoring, however, in the 18th minute when Bastian Reinhardt's ball over the top was superbly controlled by Mladen Petric who then volleyed expertly past Brad Guzan in the Villa goal.

Twelve minutes later and it was 2-0 when a good move down the left involving Marcell Jansen and Dennis Aogo finished with the latter's cross being headed home by Croatia international Ivica Olic, who outmuscled Carlos Cuellar.

Craig Gardner blazed over the bar in a rare Villa attack while at the other end Jansen rattled the crossbar from 25 yards on the stroke of half time.

O'Neill felt his side should have had a penalty in the 57th minute when home keeper Frank Rost went in dangerously on Craig Gardner but from the resulting breakaway Hamburg grabbed their third of the night when Olic again got the better of Cuellar and lashed past Guzan.

Villa grabbed a consolation with seven minutes to go when Moustapha Salifou's shot was deflected home by highly rated youngster Nathan Delfouneso - but that rare bright spot for Villa was ruined a minute later when Sidwell picked up a second yellow card for a tug on the shirt of David Jarolim.