For reasons seemingly only obvious to the Football Association, Aston Villa welcomed Liverpool to Villa Park earlier this evening for our FA Cup third round clash – despite our entire first team being out of action after an outbreak of Covid at Bodymoor Heath.
Other sides can simply postpone games, but apparently not us, so out trots Mark Delaney with a mixture of both Under 23 players and Under 18 prospects, and you know what…they will undoubtedly be knackered now but every single one of them should be proud.
Liverpool controlled the game as you’d expect and took the lead four minutes in, but heads didn’t drop, the workrate stayed and what should have been a cricket score (and Liverpool’s chance to avenge us for two heavy defeats – one including their youngsters), it simply never materialised and Louie Barry really put the cat amongst the pigeons in the 41st minute as he showed the Champions how to finish.
We all knew what to expect in the second half, this was never going to be a miracle result and it wasn’t – so with three further goals coming in the final 45, Liverpool had their win but we take all the plaudits and praise.
The dream of an FA Cup might be over for another year, but based on that performance the future is bright…very bright indeed.
Well done lads, you made Jurgen Klopp finally use the substitutes he bangs on about.
I don't remember ever standing up at home and clapping a team off at the end of a game (to be fair, I'm usually at the games so….!) but I've just done that at half time and now full time. Stand proud young lions. #AVFC
— Vital Villa (@VitalVilla) January 8, 2021
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Villa Boing The Baggies In Spite Of Predictable VAR Performance – Match Stats
Villa Park
FA Cup Third Round
8/01/2021 8:45 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Craig Pawson
| Aston Villa | Liverpool | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barry (41) | Mane (4, 63), Wijnaldum (60), Salah (65) | ||||||
| Onodi | Kelleher | ||||||
| Walker | 75 | N Williams | |||||
| Revan | R Williams | ||||||
| Bridge | Fabinho | ||||||
| Rowe | 75 | Milner | |||||
| Hayden | Jones | 61 | |||||
| Raikhy | 65 | Henderson | 45 | ||||
| Dialla Sylla | Wijnaldum | ||||||
| Bogarde | 66 | Salah | 74 | ||||
| Chrisene | 61 | Mane | 74 | ||||
| Barry | Minamino | 61 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Tait | Alisson | ||||||
| Sohna | 66 | Thiago Alcantara | 45 | ||||
| Young | 61 | Firmino | 61 | ||||
| Lindley | 66 | Oxlade-Chamberlain | 74 | ||||
| Swinkels | 75 | Shaqiri | 61 | ||||
| Rowe | 75 | Robertson | |||||
| Ealing | Origi | 74 | |||||
| Zych | Phillips | ||||||
| Jay-Hart | Alexander-Arnold | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 2 | Goal attempts | 29 |
| 1 | On Target | 13 |
| 2 | Corners | 18 |
| 2 | Fouls | 7 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 17 | % | 83 |
I have never felt so proud of a Villa team coming off the pitch after such a heavy home defeat. A bunch of debutants that left it all on the pitch and Its sad that the full house chorus from ecstatic Villians they so richly deserved to hear at the end of the game was denied them by the awful disease that ironically gave them their opportunity.
What a bunch of heroes! Barry will be all we hoped he would be. Our defenders stood up like men and played their hearts out. Much to give us hope for the future. They all did themselves proud. Well done lads.