Aston Villa 1 - 2 Liverpool:
On a night when we needed to bounce back to keep the title race alive the team delivered once again.. After going down to an early goal we hit back straight away through Jo-El Matip.. The winner came through Sadio Mane mid way through the second half..
Jo-El Levels Things Up:
After a bit of a slow start.. Well as slow as 3 minutes in can be.. We found ourselves a goal down..
Now I don't know where this offside rule has come from or how its been able to turn so farcical. But common sense for one should prevail and VAR yet again shows how poorly it is used..
Watkins was clearly offside in the build up to their opener. Did we touch the ball after the initial move.. No.. Did they play on and score.. Yes.. Did the VAR look into this.. No.. Yet again another poor decision at Villa Park..
Rant over.. This actually lifted us as we don't take these things lightly. We were straight up the other end winning a free kick down the right wing..
Trent whipped in a cross that they struggled to clear.. Matip won a ball that bounced to Jota, who set up Virg to shoot.. His shot was deflected in to Jo-Els path and he finished like a striker from close range..
Fabinho Injury:
One saw point of the night was seeing Fabinho limp off with what looked like a hamstring injury.. Jurgen said after the game that Fabs was in good spirits and feeling positive so we look forward to hearing more on this over the coming days..
He would be really missed if it is serious.. He would be devastated to miss the Final this weekend and possibly the Champions League Final too.. Fingers crossed for the lad..
Mane's Winner:
You always felt that if anyone was going to get the winner it would be us. Villa had some good chances mind. Danny Ings in particular looked pretty sharp. Firing a header over late in the first half. When it was probably easier to score.
In the second half though we started to dominate the ball. Hendo sitting in where Fabs usually does, breaking up play nicely and controlling possession. Diaz was a constant threat and it really was just a matter of time.
That bit of class came when Villa were disposessed in midfield and we broke quickly.. Jota playing a nice ball through to Diaz down the left wing. He ran at the defender and wrong footed him before crossing expertly on to Mane's head..
Mane simply had to use the pace on the ball to guide his header in to the far corner.. It was a quality finish from our born again striker..
Summary:
It was also nice to see how Stevie G's got his Villa side playing.. He is obviously a few transfer windows from getting this team where they need to be but there were signs of what he's trying to build there.
They had a good solid set up and never really lost their shape. Defensively pretty sound.. Same in midfield but they lack quality out wide in attack.
Can this team do us a favour against City..? Quite possibly.. Football at this level is about fine margins so let's hope they are in their favour. Danny Ings is a serious threat always.. As is Coutinho..
On our side of the game.. It was nice to see Curtis get a run out and Tsimikas. We rotated a little and it didn't change a thing. Trent played really well and was unlucky with a free kick. A few players were rested and we go into the FA Cup Final with a pretty much fully fit squad..
On to Wembley we go..
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