Aston Villa booked an FA Cup semi-final trip to Wembley Stadium with their second West Midlands derby victory over rivals West Brom in the space of a week.
Tim Sherwood claimed his first three points as Villans manager in Tuesday night’s 2-1 Premier League win, and the Baggies slumped to a second successive defeat at Villa Park following strikes from Fabian Delph and Scott Sinclair.
In contrast to a cagey opening 45 minutes, an action-packed second-half yielded two goals as well as two sending offs, with West Brom’s Claudio Yacob and Aston Villa youngster Jack Grealish both dismissed for two bookable offenses.
The heated game ended in frantic fashion, too, as a number of the home support stormed the pitch before the final whistle had sounded, with practically the entire crowd flooding the turf when the referee eventually did blow to signal their return to the Home of Football.
West Brom will have no one to blame but themselves for the defeat, having missed a handful of clear goalscoring opportunities throughout the clash.
They should have been ahead inside ten minutes when a quick break saw Craig Gardner flash a low cross into the box, only for record signing Brown Ideye to fire over the bar with the goal at his mercy.
Clear-cut chances were at a premium in a battling opening half but the Baggies frontman went close again later on when his diving header was saved by stand-in Villa goalkeeper Shay Given, who was given the nod ahead of number one Brad Guzan.
First choice West Brom shot-stopper Ben Foster, who conceded a stoppage-time penalty to hand Villa their slim win this week, was also benched and replacement Boaz Myhill had to be alert to prevent Sinclair after his marauding run into the box.
Veteran glovesman Given was called into action again on the stroke of half-time to push Jonas Olsson’s header over the crossbar, though the Irishman had little to do after the break as the hosts began to dominate, and their quick start to the second-half was rewarded with the opening goal on 51 minutes.
Charles N'Zogbia was allowed to travel to the edge of the box before shifting a squared pass to Delph, who smashed a long-range shot past Myhill to give the Villa a deserved lead.
West Brom were then guilty of another shocking miss, this time an unmarked Joleon Lescott who ghosted in at a corner but planted his header horribly wide at the back post.
That was the closest the visitors came in the second period as Villa turned up the pressure dial, with Sinclair twice going close before finally finding the net with a brilliant break-away goal to double his side’s lead.
The on-loan Manchester City flyer raced free of West Brom’s sleeping back-four, giving himself plenty of time to cut back on to his right foot and bend a shot past Myhill.
The closing stages were marred by two questionable referee decisions as Yacob was shown a second yellow for an innocuous challenge while 19-year-old Grealish received two bookings in a matter of seconds, supposedly for simulation and then dissent.
But their exits did little to affect the result as Villa closed out the victory, with the final whistle sparking pandemonium at Villa Park as the jubilant home support celebrated a long-awaited return to Wembley.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét