When Martin O’Neill says that you can often learn more from a defeat than a victory, as cliched as it’s become, he’s not wrong. Feyenoord put out a young side, we should of beaten them, we did. Benfica were a much tougher prospect and given the circumstances, they should probably have had the beating of us. They did. Comfortably. But did we learn anything?
Well, firstly, some perspective. Benfica are an extremely good team, they
Video of each of the goals in last night’s 4-1 loss to Benfica in the Guadiana Cup. (One video for each goal)
10′ David Luiz’s pile driver takes a wicked deflection to beat Brad Friedel.
36′ Franco Jara hits another big shot from distance, Friedel parries, but Saviola is smartly following up.
43′ Óscar Cardozo sticks an unstoppable free kick into the top corner.
49′ Franco Jara drags the ball back at the byline, beating Curtis Davies and cuts it back to Saviola to
Schooled.
Perhaps a little worse than I feared, but Benfica are a very good side and I figured they’d expose our weaknesses. Starting four forwards and a centre half with the ability to get forward like David Luiz, it was always going to be tough in the Algarve heat.
No excuses, we looked short on ideas, movement, quality, you name it. However, there aren’t too many sides in England that you could draw parallels to Benfica. Sure, we should
Just a quick post as I’ve just got finished with the live blog. That would normally serve as a reasonably good account of the game, but unfortunately I was under the impression that this game kicked off at 9.30pm, so I missed the first few minutes, including a 35 yard screamer from Marc Albrighton, and spent most of the first half trying to catch up.
I did get to see Marc’s goal in the half time highlights and it was
3,000 Villa fans made it to the Bescot tonight to see a mixed Villa side turn in a comfortable 2-1 victory over Wallsall thanks to a brace from young Andreas Weimann just back from international duty.
As rumoured prior to kick off, Steve Sidwell was included tonight, partnered in the middle by Nigel Reo-Coker wearing the armband, with the side returning to a more familiar 4-4-2, giving the new away kit its first airing.
James Collins lasted all of three minutes before
The goals and post match interviews from 2-1 loss against Bohemians in Dublin on Saturday.
Once again, kudos to my new friends at extratime.ie who put this video together in good time.
Aston Villa slumped to an extremely disappointing defeat in Dublin today, losing 2-1 to the Irish Champions, Bohemians, and the lack of any real creativity in the middle will be a real cause for concern. A very bright performance from young winger Marc Albrighton will be scant consolation.
Bohemians opened the scoring in the 20th minute after an uncharacteristic mistake from Brad Friedel, slicing a clearance straight to Conor Powell just outside the box who chipped in.
Villa pressed and controlled
Just in case you missed the goals on Sky Sports, here’s the video while it lasts:-
Ashley’s goal was a bit special, wasn’t it?
Aston Villa kicked off the pre-season proper with an entertaining 3-2 victory over Peterborough at London Rd tonight, Ashley Young, John Carew and Eric Lichaj getting the goals and all 8 substitutes got some time on the pitch.
Ashley Young opened the scoring inside the opening 10 minutes, but Aaron Davies brought the home side back on terms almost immediately. John Carew restored the briefly held lead just before half time.
Elliot Parish came on in place of Brad Friedel for