With mixed Premier League form for Aston Villa, we have also recently dealt with the disappointing defeat to Fulham in the FA Cup but earlier this evening we had the opportunity to keep one route to Wembley alive as we travelled to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City in the Semi-Final first leg tie of the EFL Cup.
Given our injury situation, we arguably went as strong as we could with the lineup but there was a twist as an ‘ill’ Jonathan Kodjia was ruled out and head coach Dean Smith went all Manchester City with no recognised striker on the pitch.
The first half wasn’t great, but we were spirited and we were tighter defensively (despite our own avoidable errors) and completely against the run of play Anwar El Ghazi whipped in a ball and Freddy Guilbert was on the end of it to make it 1-0.
It should’ve been 2-0 as well but sadly Ezri Konsa could only find the woodwork. Leicester had a few chances themselves but when they did get through, Orjan Nyland was up to the task.
So could we continue it?
In short no, we continued with our own errors and they stepped up a gear and from a totally avoidable error, they got the leveller.
With that said, despite dominating possession and having 21 chances overall, they only got six on target as the system gave us far more defensive strength and cover and the only effort that tested Nyland was their goal in my humble.
Massive positives, massive negatives that show how far we have to go, but tied going into the Villa Park leg is something we’d all have taken…right?
Previous Article:
One Returns To Villa As Duo Are Ruled Out For The Season – Smith Talks January Plans
King Power Stadium
EFL Cup Semi-Final 1st Leg
8/01/2020 9:00 pm
Attendance: 31280
Referee: Kavanagh
| Leicester City | Aston Villa | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iheanacho (74) | Guilbert (28) | ||||||
| Schmeichel | Nyland | ||||||
| Soyuncu | Konsa | ||||||
| Evans | Mings | ||||||
| Fuchs | Hause | ||||||
| Pereira | Guilbert | ||||||
| Tielemans | 79 | Taylor | |||||
| Praet | 45 | Douglas Luiz | |||||
| Maddison | Nakamba | 86 | |||||
| Chilwell | Trezeguet | 67 | |||||
| Perez | 69 | El Ghazi | 74 | ||||
| Vardy | Grealish | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Justin | Chester | ||||||
| Albrighton | 79 | Lansbury | 86 | ||||
| Ward | Hourihane | 67 | |||||
| Iheanacho | 69 | Jota | |||||
| Barnes | Elmohamady | ||||||
| Benkovic | Kalinic | ||||||
| Choudhury | 45 | Vassilev | 74 | ||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 21 | Goal attempts | 3 |
| 6 | On Target | 1 |
| 11 | Corners | 0 |
| 16 | Fouls | 13 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 70 | % | 30 |