Carabao Cup QF: Villa 5-0 Liverpool
By Tom Wade
Aston Villa have booked their place in the Semi-Finals of the Carabao Cup thanks to a 5-0 win over what was a very young and inexperienced Liverpool team.
Goals from Conor Hourihane, Morgan Boyes (OG), Johnathan Kodjia, and Wesley was enough to see the Villans safely through to the final four.
Despite the scoreline, the Villa were tested more than enough times by the Liverpool youngsters, and manager Dean Smith will certainly have Ørjan Nyland to thank for keeping the Reds off the scoresheet.
Although Liverpool had the best of the opening first 10 minutes, Villa took the lead after 14 minutes as Conor Hourihane’s free-kick somehow found its way through traffic and into the bottom of the net (via a touch for Jonathan Kodjia?, you could argue yes).
It wasn’t long after the Hourihane/Kodjia goal when Villa were once again celebrating as just three minutes later, an Ahmed Elmohamady cross from the right-hand side of the box took a wild deflection off of Liverpool defender Morgan Boyes and somehow found its way past goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher.
Villa grabbed their third of the night thanks to another mistake from Boyes as Kodjia got in behind him to slot past Kelleher.
With halftime approaching, Villa and Kodjia were not done just yet as the striker grabbed his second (or third, maybe) of the night as he converted an Elmohamady cross after some neat build-up play from the home team. Halftime: 4-0.
After than half, Villa seemed to take the foot off the gas and allowed the Liverpool youngsters to play. Villa had their chances, as did Liverpool but the game had hit the point where it was a case of seeing the game out.
However, after coming on to replace Kodjia, it was the turn of Wesley to get in on the act as the Brazilian rounded off the night getting his name on the scoresheet, tapping home to get a much- needed goal behind him.
Despite the scoreline, you have to give credit to Neil Critchley and his young team as even with the game out of sight, they still had a good go. Fulltime: 5-0.
Villa will now go onto the hat for tomorrow’s semi-final draw where they await team’s such as Manchester City, Manchester United, and Leicester City, should they come through their respective games against Oxford United, Colchester United and Everton.