Aston Villa 1-4 Liverpool
Liverpool will now move on to the fourth round of the FA Cup as they defeated Aston Villa last Friday night over at Villa Park.
Sadio Mane scored a brace, and Georginio Wijnaldum and Mohamed Salah scored one each as Jurgen Klopp’s men asserted their superior experience levels over a youthful Aston Villa side.
Prior to this game, the Reds were struggling to find their form probably because of the Christmas hangover. So a victory here was much-needed to regain some confidence.
As for Aston Villa, team manager Dean Smith was not present on the sidelines, and they fielded in a makeshift youth squad primarily because of a reported “significant coronavirus outbreak” in their training ground last week.
In fact, this clash was in doubt due to the unfortunate development but the Villans insisted that they will push through by giving their youngsters a very valuable experience.
Moreover, this win was satisfying for the Reds. It can be noted that in the last time that these two clubs met, Aston Villa dropped the hammer via a 7-2 victory at the same venue.
Even if the names on the pitch weren’t the same as before, this win would somehow erase the painful memories of their previous encounter.
Today at SBOTOP, let us take a look at last Friday night’s package of FA Cup 2021 highlights.
Highlights of the game
With head coach Dean Smith out due to COVID-19 protocols, Mark Delaney acted as the caretaker for Aston Villa.
As the Villans faced a tall order of filling in the squad at such short notice, the FA Cup 2021 odds tilted to the favour of the Reds.
Right from the get-go, Liverpool asserted their dominance over Aston Villa’s youth-laden group.
In just within the first four minutes, Sadio Mane drew first blood with his aerial ability by heading the ball in after a lovely cross from Curtis Jones.
Their lead almost doubled five minutes later when Mohamed Salah flicked the ball to Takumi Minamino inside the box, but Georginio Wijnaldum fluffed his lines after he got another pass from the Japanese winger.
Liverpool continued to test Aston Villa’s goalkeeper with a double attempt in the 23rd minute, but Fabinho and Sadio Mane’s shot were both blocked.
Mohamed Salah had gone for goal during the 35th minute, but Akos Onodi deflected another shot away for a corner.
Come the 41st minute, the young Villans managed to draw level against the defending Premier League champions.
Louie Barry was on the receiving end of a clever through-ball and the 17-year-old finished their counterattack with class.
But unfortunately, fatigue did set in for the young Villans as the Reds regained control for good.
During the one-hour mark of the match, Georginio Wijnaldum finally converted on a low finish after getting teed up by Takumi Minamino once more.
Sadio Mane pushed their lead to two goals when he did another looping header after a Xherdan Shaqiri chip into the penalty area three minutes later.
To cap off their masterful performance. Mohamed Salah put the game away with a quick turn and shoot after a Xherdan Shaqiri pass to the centre in the 65th minute.
Key statistics
The Reds’ collective experience was simply too much for the Aston Villa youngsters.
Jurgen Klopp’s side dominated the possession game at 83-per cent, whereas the Villans only had the ball at 17-per cent.
Furthermore, Liverpool had 29 total shots with 13 of them on target, and they had 18 corner kicks compared to the Villans’ two.
Aston Villa fielded in seven U-23 players and four U-18 players from their youth program in this contest.
Four of Aston Villa’s players in their starting XI just hit their driving age at 17. Midfielder Benjamin Chrisene was the youngest guy on the pitch at 16 years old.
Overall, this Aston Villa selection had an average age of 18 years and 294 days.
Louie Barry was the homegrown hero for Aston Villa. The budding striker was signed by the Villans for around £800,000 after a brief spell with Barcelona’s youth academy.
What’s next?
Liverpool will have a big game at their hands on Monday night.
The Reds will host the resurgent Red Devils over at Anfield in what will be a battle for the Premier League’s top spot at the table.
On the other hand, Aston Villa will rest in the next few days and they’ll get to face Tottenham at Villa Park on Thursday for their next Premier League fixture.
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