Once again, the live blog will be mostly fed from the Aston Villa Central Live Twitter account, so there will be a little lag – I think it looks for updates every minute of so. You can add your comments to the Live Blog if you wish, but it’s not designed to act like a chat room, so comments do require approval before they appear.

Clear as mud? Good. [Simple version: Pre-match news below, live blog on page 2]

Starting XI: Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, A Young, Milner, Petrov, Downing, Carew, Agbonlahor. Subs: L Young, Sidwell, Delfouneso, Delph, Heskey, Guzan, Beye.

In case you missed it yesterday, I recently spotted an old video on TV of Johnny Dixon making an acceptance speech of sorts following victory in the 1957 FA Cup final. Unfortunately I can’t grab that video, but I did record the audio which you can listen to below. A completely different era for sure.

Premiership Fixtures

Just two games in the Premiership today; both involving teams fighting relegation, so no real consequence to our own league campaign, but interesting appetizers to our match at Wembley. Both kick off at 3pm.

• Hull v Burnley
• West Ham v Sunderland

Also, the Grand National will be running at 4.15pm if that’s your bag. And football fans all around the world will surely be watching the El Classico which kicks off at 9pm.

The James Milner interview on BBC’s Football Focus is worth checking out. James is always good value, a thoughtful and honest player. [AVFC OS]

I know a couple of the usual suspects speculated that James Collins had deleted his Twitter account after issuing a public apology for the 7-1 defeat under some kind of instruction from the club. Of course, that’s absolute nonsense. James explains that he simply decided “it was time to concentrate on playing football”.

James Collins
It was tough to take for myself. I’ve been pretty happy with my form over the last couple of months and to drop that [performance] in the middle was quite strange so I thought I would put [the apology] out there. It was maybe a comment that I shouldn’t have made looking back on it. But it did give the fans a chance to see how I was feeling. It’s all right taking all the hype and the congratulations but I think when you play bad you’ve got to be the first to admit it. And I’m big enough and ugly enough.

Martin O’Neill says that the confidence is back. [The Guardian]

The last time we were at Wembley, for the Carling Cup final, I seem to remember making a reference to entertainers being dragged into finals of yore. For some reason Stan Boardman springs to mind, but it could be anyone of his ilk for all I care. Anyway, apparently the team were “entertained” by a magician before the last Wembley game, but James Collins reveals that’s not the case this time. [The Telegraph]

This is not strictly related to the game and I probably will refer to it again in future posts, but Randy Lerner and COO Paul Faulkner have recently given an interview with The Independent’s Tom Watt and, as ever, have had one or two interesting things to say.

Randy Lerner
You know, I think back to the final in February. Manchester United are a huge club, a one-off, for all sorts of historical reasons. But I wasn’t sitting at Wembley, looking at United and thinking: ‘I wish we were them.’ I’d rather celebrate the things we’ve got that they don’t.

I looked along at our end of Wembley and it was rammed: scarves, banners, non-stop singing, absolutely behind the team. And this wasn’t a little club out on a jolly. It was 10 years since we’d been there and it felt like our supporters were dusting themselves down and saying: ‘Yes. That’s us. We’re the Villa.’

If you’re worried about the effect that the 7-1 beating has had on us, as I and many Villa fans are, Rob Smith has some excellent examples of teams that have bounced back from heavy losses to inflict revenge and vanquish their conquerors. [The Guardian]

The Wembley pitch has been relaid for the 10th time this season, following heavy criticism after the Carling Cup final and England vs Egypt friendly. [The Guardian]

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This live blog will be fed almost exclusively from the new Aston Villa Central Live Twitter account so there will be a little lag following here.  If you prefer, you can stay up to speed by following @AVC_live.

Other Fixtures Today

• Birmingham (9) v Arsenal (3)
• Hull (19) v Fulham (10)
• Tottenham (4) v Portsmouth (20)
• West Ham (17) v Stoke (12)
• Wolves (15) v Everton (8)
• Bolton (14) v Man Utd (1) [5.30pm]

Headlines

Forest wanted Freddy Bouma on loan, but were knocked back. [Tribal Football]

Nicky Shorey has told Fulham that he’s willing to consider a permanent move when the time comes. [Sky Sports]

“A lot of players went for scans yesterday” – Martin O’Neill [AVFC OS]

MON admits that there’s “no margin for error” and that we’re going to have to freshen up the squad and win a few games away from home. [The Guardian]

James Milner, Richard Dunne, Emile Heskey and Gabby Agbonlahor are all doubts. [Birmingham Mail]

Stewart Downing was impressed with Nathan Delfouneso’s impact in the Sunderland game – “I thought Nathan changed the game the other night.” [Birmingham Mail]

Team News

Starting XI: Friedel, L Young, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Young, Milner, Petrov, Sidwell, Agbonlahor, Carew.

Subs: Guzan, Beye, Cuellar, Davies, Salifou, Downing, Delfouneso.

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Firstly, I noticed that the countdown timer in the sidebar was incorrectly counting down to tomorrow instead of today. Apologies if you also noticed that, it was my error and I’ve taken myself outside for a good flogging. If it makes you feel any better, until yesterday I was under the impression that the match was on Thursday for some reason.

FIFA 10

I was messing around with Google’s new look search earlier, or a sneak peak anyway, and I stumbled on this forum post for FIFA 10 online:-

You wont notice this until you get to play people with high rankings.

Almost 95% of top 100 use Aston Villa and the main reason they use them is very simple to exploit Fifa. They play with 7 man back and 3 upfront.

Agbanlahor (spelled wrong) Young and Carew upfront. With pass creation set to 100 and agression to 100 and pressure to 20. Basically they become a team you can’t stop when they attack but can’t penetrate when you’re on the attack. with 7 defenders on you and those amazingly 3 strikers upfront.

Agg is the fastest player on the game and Young is the fastest dribbler on the game alongside messi and Carew is strong as a tree , fast, and has the finishing of David Villa.

Even if you pick 1 star team they’ll go aston villa. Pick 5 star team they still go Aston villa.

Avoid them at all cost people that abuse Aston villa like this.

I must confess that I haven’t played FIFA for some time and I still own a PS2 which is just gathering dust, so I couldn’t possibly comment on whether this is true or not. It certainly made me laugh though. I wonder whether MON has ever considered employing a 7-3 formation? He’s probably already got the aggression set close to 100 and the pressure on 20, it’s the pass creation setting that he needs to look at!

Jermaine Pennant

Apparently NotW were reporting at the weekend that Aston Villa are interested in Jermaine Pennant for January. I’m calling shenanigans, there’s no credibility in claiming MON is interested in players we don’t need to add “further competition for places in the wide positions” when he’s very limited in his squad utilization.

Formation

Regular readers will know that I’m fairly neutral in any debate about formation and that I’d echo MON’s sentiment that it’s more about the players and roles than recognised formations. I’m perfectly willing to concede that in certain situations there’s a case to be made for Villa employing 5 midfielders when MON’s preferred 4, in fact I generally lean that way myself, but I won’t buy any argument that 4-5-1 wins games and 4-4-2 loses them.

We’ve played 4-4-2 enough this season to put that tired argument to bed, but Jonathan Wilson’s article on formations and symmetry naturally resonated with me.

I would totally agree that the English mindset has become stuck in its definitions of roles and, by extension, the formation the players line up in. The continental and South American perspective has a broader vocabulary to describe what the players are doing on the pitch and are able to have a more sophisticated understanding of the nuances effecting strategy and tactics.

I would certainly recommend setting some time aside to read it. As Villa fans, you will certainly be rewarded with a choice assessment of our own Emile Heskey in the closing sentences. Trust me.

McGregor Statue

This is definitely worthy of its own post, but it kept getting bumped down the list. The club and Supporters’ Trust unveiled the fruit of labours at the weekend when the William McGregor statue was finally installed. This was an excellent project and congratulations and thanks should be extended to everyone involved.

BBC News published a nice article and the OS has a fantastic gallery of pictures. I think it will become a very warmly regarded feature at Villa Park, just one more thing to make us fans proud of the club we support.

Team News

Starting XI, which I imagine will line up something like this…

Subs: Friedel, Delfouneso, Delph, Reo-Coker, Beye, Gardner, Clark.

The second half is just underway with the score currently 1-2. There was an early OG from Petrov at a corner, but Villa have come back in fine form with goals from Heskey and what sounds like a belter from James Milner.

Full time – Portsmouth 2 Aston Villa 4!! We’re in the semis!! Report here.

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Review later. For now, if you think that we simply lose playing 4-4-2, then know we won this game playing exactly that, only switching to 4-5-1 after taking the lead.

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I live blogged one game during the Peace Cup and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to do it again. I decided to dip my toe in the water once more, we’ll see how it goes…

Bellamy got the visitors back on level terms after Adebayor finally slipped his shadow – Richard Dunne of course – for long enough to pull a ball back that he Welshman couldn’t miss.

A full report to follow later, but the live commentary should still be accessible below by clicking on ‘Replay’.

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This is the first live blog commentary I’ve tried, hopefully it will go well. I’m going to restrict the Twitter updates to major points only.

The first thing I want to correct is the kick off time, apparently the final will be kicking off at 9:00pm GMT not 9:30pm as I had published in the preview. Apologies for that, accurate information has been difficult source throughout the tournament.

I have GolTV on here, they have a pre-game show scheduled for 8:15pm, but I don’t know if that’s available though the online streams? I’ll also check out the free commentary on offer from the club, but unless it syncs with the TV through some kind of Jack Woodward magic I won’t be able to listen to much. Sorry Jack, maybe at half time.

Updates to follow below…

11.48pm – And Reo-Coker lifts the trophy!!!!

11.47pm – Martin O’Neill has a wry old smile on his face. He looks like a proud dad.

11.46pm – The lads. climb the stairs to get their medals and trophy. Reo-Coker at the back. Pity there’s no real crowd there to cheer them on.

11.44pm – Juve pick up their medals.

FT – Ash picks up a trophy for best player. Or something.

FT – Championes!!!! Championes!!! Some silverware!!! Get in!!!!

FT – YES!!! JUVE MISSS VILLA ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!

FT – Cuellar 4-3

FT – del piero tries a cheeky one down the middle but Guzan saves it!!! 3-3

FT – meh, Buffon saves from Herd. 3-3.

FT – Oh!! Guzan almost saves another. 3-3.

FT – Yes!! Ash sends buffon the wrong way. 3-2

FT – Amauri scores 2-2

FT – Cool as you like from Lowry – 2-1

FT – Guzan almost save from Trezeguet. 1-1

FT – Sidwell hits it over the bar. 1-0

FT – Guzan saves from Iaquinta 1-0

FT – No Villa first. Bannan SCORES!!! 1-0

FT – Reo-Coker and Buffon toss the coin and Juve are shooting first. I think.

FT – MON is planning who is taking penalties.

FT – I think the ref has somewhere to go?!?!

116′ – Urm, the ref blows the whistle four minutes early and finishes the game!!

115′ – Bannan wins a free kick for hand ball trying to get between two Juve players. Ball whipped in and bounces around resulting in Lichaj taking an elbow to the mouth which splits his lip.

112′ – Villa struggling to keep the ball, but Juve aren’t getting through without a fight. If this was a full stadium watching a major game we’d be talking about heroes right now.

110′ – It’s going to take something very special or very stupid to beat Guzan today.

108′ – I’ve just realised that I have no clue how I’m going to cover this if it goes to penalties.

108′ – Ash tried to feed Sidwell with the edge of his boot, just outpaces the Ginger Ninja’s run though the middle though. Buffon gathers.

107′ – Corner to Juve. Cuellar and Herd seeing it out. Cuellar has been awesome. Guzan strongly punches the corner for a throw in on the other side.

ET:HT – The teams take on some water before switching ends. Everyone is exhausted.

105′ – 11th corner to Villa. Headed clear, but Villa retain possession and feed Albrighton who whips it back in and Herd heads over.

104′ – Reo-Coker finds himself with a shooting opportunity inside the box. It doesn’t worry anyone except the ball boy who will have to go fetch it since there’s no one in the crowd to throw it back.

102′ – Trezeguet tries a bicycle kick 8 yards out. Guzan’s all over it like a cheap suit.

101′ – Great opportunities at both ends now, this game is really getting stretched.

99′ Booked – Chiellini. Clever turn from Albrighton to win the foul and booking.

97′ – These kids looked really assured on the ball. Nice, calm footwork from Herd there. Albrighton is running the show down the right. Completely fearless. The rest of the team are looking for him on every attack now. If we had the strike force to be able to leave Ash on the left we’ll be very, very dangerous!!

95′ – Reo-Coker makes a charging solo run, it gets away from him, but he wins a corner. Again the ball in is lacking. Corners are a definite opportunity for improvement.

94′ – Herd playing in a holding midfield role. Ash up front alone.

91′ Substitution – Herd on for Carew.

FT – Extra time required. Not much left on the Villa bench.

90 +2′ – Looks like we’re heading for extra time.

89′ Substitution – Del Piero on for Camonranesi.

89′ Booking – Lichaj. Free kick on edge of box.

85′ – Camoranesi wins a free kick from Cuellar, very deliberate. Good position, but Juve fires over the bar.

84′ – It’s end to end now. Great work again from Albrighton. Juve break and Herd sprints to keep pace with Iaquinta who makes a call for handball in the box. Hopeful.

82′ – Juventus getting a bit more quality ball now. There’s some tired legs, but Villa are still looking very organised.

81′ – Guzan sprints out to the corner of his box and forces Iaquinta to lob over the bar.

78′ Booking – Sidwell.

78′ – Guzan makes an instinctive, reaction save. Corner. Ball ends up at the far post and Guzan makes another save.

75′ – Bannan & Lowry on for Weimann & Shorey. Weimann was pretty much playing on the left anyway so it’s a like for like substitution.

74′ – Juve love lofted ball down the middle into the box. Case in point, great last minute defending from Davies and Guzan smothers.

71′ – Just as I say that, frantic defending at the back and a couple of great saves from Guzan.

70′ – Villa have had the better of this game, no doubt. Hopefully they don’t let their heads get down and keep their concentration.

68′ – Curtis is OK and back on the pitch.

67′ – Guzan and Curtis Davies collide challenging a high ball. Guzan hit Curtis hard.

66′ – Iaquinta blasts over from just outside the box. Strong defending from Villa.

65′ – Iaquinta heads over from a decent cross in.

63′ – Albrighton is a crossing machine.

61′ – Corner #7. Still not a great delivery from Ash. Juve break on the counter. Ball falls to Trezeguet and he spoons over from 6 yards.

59′ – Another corner to Villa from another great ball in from Albrighton. He had to dig that one out from under his feet on the byline too. He’s definitely a great prospect for this season.

55′ Substitution – Zanetti on for Machisio.

55′ – Lichaj challenges for a lovely little ball knocked over the top. Studs up against Buffon, would probably not go down so well in a real game.

54′ – Albrighton taking them on down the left now. Wins a corner. Needs someoen on the end of it. That’s 6 corners to Villa now.

53′ – Ash knocks back to Reo-Coker who carries and then feeds Albrighton. A mazey run later and it’s a corner on the right. Ash seems to be playing in behind Carew.

52′ – Guzan watches a Juve free kick sail over far post.

50′ – Juve restricted to long shots. Corner. Doesn’t beat Carew.

48′ – Lichaj takes on of those long throws right into the box. Comes to nothing this time, but that’s a useful tool to have in our box.

47′ – Free kick from wide for either side. Buffon punched away. Guzan caught neatly and fed a long ball to Young which leads to a corner. Corner falls to Cuellar at the far post who leaves it for another corner.

46′ – Villa kick off the second half. No changes.

HT – Players on the pitch waiting for the refereeing team. Kick off any minute.

HT – Trying to listen to Jack Woodward’s half time thoughts and can just hear people chatting in the background.

HT – Liverpool are being well beaten 3-0 by Espanyol btw.

HT – Martin O’Neill will be very happy in the changing rooms right now. A strong showing from his team. I’m not sure that Juventus have hit top gear yet and have strong options on the bench, but Buffon’s had to make a few decent saves.

HT – No injury time played. A pretty even half, Villa enjoying the better of the last third. Some encouraging performances from the Villans.

43′ – Juve’s first corner is headed down and bounces over the bar.

42′ – Guzan called into action for the first time in a while. Smothers a through ball, but Trezequet was well offside anyway.

41′ – Sidwell wins a foul in the final third. Ash fires in a great ball and Carew heads over the bar.

39′ Substitution – Juve Grygera on for Molinaro. Albrighton forces a save from Buffon, great shot from the right channel.

37′ – Wow, Carew takes it and blast low and hard. Buffon taps round the post for another corner.

36′ – Ash wins a foul in a great position, 35 yards out, slightly to the right.

35′ – Albrighton beats his man and fires in a tempting cross for Carew. Juve clear for a corner, which again is wasted.

32′ – Young crosses in from the right, gathered by Buffon.

30′ – Free kick to Juve 30 yards out, headed away by Carew and Villa fans sing his name.

27′ – Chance wasted by feeding out to Shorey on the left instead. Possession lost, but Carew ended up feeding Ash who blasted a low, driven shot to the near post. Buffon smothers and Juve go close at the other end. Cuellar pushed though.

26′ Booking – Melo picks up a yellow card dragging down Ash on the break. 40 yards out, another chance to whip one in.

23′ – Carew wins a free kick, Ash whips it in. Neatly gathered by Buffon. A couple of chances to whip in balls from set pieces have been wasted now.

20′ – Game stopped, Juve player pulled up and his receiving treatment to ankle.

19′ – Corner won by Weimann. Great run, quickly shut down and he was lucky to win the corner. Ash to take.

15′ – Ash seems to have switched to play with Carew and Weimann on the left.

14′ – Guzan smothering a through ball for the second time in as many minutes. He’s going to have to keep his concentration for the entire game.

12′ – Another shot from distance from Juve has Guzan sprawling to his right to cover. Just wide.

10′ – Weimann releases Carew down the left with a beautiful ball. Fed back inside, comes to nothing. The youngster isn’t overawed though. Albrighton & Lichaj again looking settled. Fairly even first 10 minutes.

5′ – Young with a shot from the left. Gathered by Buffon.

2′ – Giovinco with the first shot of the game, from distance. Guzan sees it over the bar.

1′ – Juventus kick off.

8.59pm – Players on the pitch, kick off any moment.

8.56pm – Just seeing some video of the lads arriving at the stadium earlier – looking relaxed. They all seem to favour the enormous, over-the-ear type headphones.

8.52pm – Just a few minutes until kick off. The cameraman managed to find some totty in the stands.

8.38pm – Full line up:-

8.31pm – Although England 19’s lost to Ukraine in the European Championship Final today, our own Nathan Delfouneso did finish the tournament as top scorer with 4 goals.

8.29pm – Jack is actually just popping in and out during pre-match. Silence right now. A couple of shots from inside the stadium look live and there’s no one there yet. Still, half an hour until kick off.

8.19pm – GolTV pre-match show covering team’s route to final. Jack Woodward is now doing his commentary which seems to be done by some sort of phone connection.

8.16pm – Team announced, MON likes his 4-4-2. Weimann handed a start:-

Guzan; Lichaj, Cuellar, Davies, Shorey; Albrighton, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Young, Weimann, Carew.

Harewood really has no future at the club, does he?

8.08pm – I think I’m right in saying that the fans back in England have been watching an online feed from GolTV and enjoying the commentary team. Hopefully the king of the metaphor, Ray Hudson, will be lending his Geordie tones to the final. If you’re still killing time you can enjoy some of this work in this video…

7.55pm – Nothing to do with the game, but if you’re killing time before kick off, as I am, this is a great story about Bobby Robson’s first job as a manager, in Canada of all places.

7.37pm – Less than 90 minutes until kick off. The media guys have been at the stadium for nearly an hour. The teams will probably be there any minute, if they’re not already. I wonder how many tickets have been sold?

Oh, and Randy Lerner has also flown in for the game from the States.

6.15pm – One of the few websites to follow the tournament in any detail is Goal.com. I want to stress that I’m not claiming this as accurate, but they do have a starting XI published. I don’t expect the official team sheet until an hour before kick off at the earliest, probably later. But for what it’s worth, here’s the starting line-up according to Goal.com:-

Guzan, Davies, Shorey, Cuellar, Lichaj, Sidwell, Albrighton, Reo-Coker, Lowry, Carew, A Young.

Honestly, I’d be a little surprised if this is what O’Neill goes with, but if it’s accurate I’d expect Lowry at left back, Shorey left midfield and Ash either up front with Carew, or in that free role just behind the big man.

As I said in the preview, I’d prefer to see 5 in midfield myself, but we’ll have to wait to see what MON thinks.

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