Aston Villa played two 45 minutes friendlies out in Germany earlier today at the Schauinsland Reisen Arena and we kicked the day off with a three nil victory over MSV Duisburg in the opening game.
A brace from Scott Hogan after Andre Green had opened the scoring was enough to give us victory and it put us into the final against Hertha Berlin which kicked off at 3pm.
Against Duisburg we were back to a traditional 442 with John Terry partnering James Chester, and Jed Steer made an appearance between the sticks for the first time in over a year.
Villa – 442:
Steer, Hutton, Chester, Terry, Taylor, Elmohamady Doyle-Hayes, Hourihane, Green, O`Hare, Hogan.
Ahead of the final against Hertha, Stiliyan Petrov was given the Guardian of Tradition honour from the organisers of the Cup of Traditions in recognition of his services to football. Alan Hutton received the award in his honour as he was unable to make the tournament today.
So to the final, and it was all change in the starting XI front and new signing Chris Samba broke the deadlock to give us the one nil advantage.
Gabby Agbonlahor made it two nil just ahead of the half hour mark after he won the ball off the last defender and went on to round the keeper.
And that was where the scoring ended.
A two nil victory and the Cup of Traditions is ours but Micah Richards did pull up with just over ten minutes gone and he left the field clutching his leg but after what was a steady performance alongside Chris Samba, hopefully it won’t be anything too serious that keeps him out for a period of time again. Richards did reappear for the trophy ceremony and he seemed to be walking fine.
Villa – 443:
Steer, Bree, Richards (Davis 15), Samba, Amavi, Bjarnason, Whelan, Lansbury, Grealish, McKirdy, Agbonlahor.
Agbonlahor skippered the side in the second match and Whelan helped himself to a yellow card but Bruce now has his first trophy at the club.
Overall attendance: 5913.
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