Aston Villa eased into their first League Cup semi-final since losing 5-4 over two legs to Bolton back in January 2004 by scoring 5 of the 6 goals in the 4 – 2 win at Fratton Park.
Portsmouth took the lead after 10 minutes when Stan Petrov’s sliced clearance from a corner flew in at the near post past the helpless Brad Guzan. Emile Heskey justified his inclusion in the starting XI by restoring the status quo 2
I’m not going to restart writing previews for games, but today I will kill time between now and kick off with one or two random things that’s catching my attention with a ‘live thread’ feel. I’ll chuck in any relevant match news if and when it surfaces and probably some thoughts during the game as it may well be a case of listening to the free commentary on the radio.
Firstly, I noticed that the countdown timer in the sidebar was
Playing at Villa Park would have been better, but never look a gift horse in the mouth. Carling Cup Quarter Final draw…
Blackburn v Chelsea
Manchester City v Arsenal
Manchester United v Tottenham
Portsmouth v Aston Villa
If we can get past Pompey, the Semi-Finals will be in January over two legs. It will be tough, whoever is left in the competition, but over two legs anything can happen.
Wow!! It took a penalty shoot out to settle this one, but Aston Villa will be in the next round of the Carling Cup after beating Sunderland 3 -1 from the spot. Brad Guzan has emerged as an absolute super hero after not only saving 3 penalties during the shoot out, but also one in the 85th minute and also made a number of crucial saves during the game! An unbelievable performance!!
In case you weren’t aware, the
Blackburn Rovers vs Peterborough United
Tottenham Hotspur vs Everton
Chelsea vs Bolton Wanderers
Arsenal vs Liverpool
Manchester City vs Scunthorpe United
Barnsley vs Manchester United
Sunderland vs Aston Villa
Portsmouth vs Stoke City
Games will be played week commencing October 26th 2009 – Sunderland vs Villa will be Tuesday 27th.
Sunderland away is definitely winnable, but it’s Cup football and anything can happen. Arsenal vs Liverpool and Spurs vs Everton are obviously the games of the round and also mean that two tough opponents will definitely be knocked
Making the Carling Cup fourth round draw really shouldn’t be such a big deal, but when you consider that Villa haven’t progressed any further than the fourth round for 5 years you’d be forgiven for hoping to get a decent draw.
I certainly am. Here’s the 16 teams left in the draw, what odds on Man Utd at home?
Aston Villa
Arsenal
Chelsea
Bolton
Barnsley
Everton
Liverpool
Man Utd
Sunderland
Peterborough
Portsmouth
Blackburn
Stoke
Scunthorpe
Spurs
Man City
The draw will be held on Saturday 26th September.
Aston Villa will be in the Carling Cup fourth round draw this Saturday after beating Cardiff City 1-0 at Villa Park tonight.
The news that Reo-Coker would not be included this evening proved to be accurate with MON electing to use a 4-4-2 system – Guzan, Beye, Cuellar, Collins, Shorey, Gardner, Milner, Delph, Petrov, Agbonlahor, Carew with Friedel, Sidwell, Dunne, Clark, Albrighton, Delfouneso and Warnock on the bench.
Gabby got the home side off to the best of starts scoring on 2
That’s the word on the street anyway. I’ll be confirming the team sheet on Twitter, as always, but I’m hoping this little snippet of info isn’t accurate.
Stuart James at The Guardian had me confused on Monday with his view of what was likely to happen. His opening paragraph contained this information:-
Martin O’Neill has sought to draw a line under the incident that saw him clash with Nigel Reo-Coker during a training-ground practice match after the midfielder apologised for swearing
Let’s be honest here, the Carling Cup is only taken seriously by clubs who recognise that winning it is their best hope of qualifying for Europe. I don’t think we’d be getting too big for our boots to think we’re a little way above that point, although top six in this league is a massive challenge.
The conventional wisdom would probably suggest that MON’s approach to this game would be a bit different if he had the distraction of the