Full-time: Aston Villa 2-1 Leicester
Well, for around 75 minutes that was awful. Then Bacuna’s goal breathed life into the game. Aston Villa scored two goals. Yes, who’d have thought. And one of those was from a man who hasn’t scored in three years. Neither team or manager will dwell long on that game though. It was dire for a long, long time. Leicester won’t worry much about going out of the Cup. Survival is a priority. And Tim Sherwood won’t be whooping and hollering about still being in the Cup. Survival is a priority for him in his new job too. He’ll be pleased that at least he will be taking over a team with a win and a couple of goals in their last outing. And that’s not a bad platform to start on.
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90+3 min: Leicester pack the Villa box and stick the ball in there. Some head tennis ensues but finally Villa clear, resisting the pressure and booking their place in the quarter-finals.
90+2 min: Morgan tries to level things with a volley from 25 yards. But we’re talking Wes Morgan here. That was never going to end well. His effort flies high into some of the empty seating behind the goal.
Goal! Aston Villa 2-1 Leicester (Kramaric 90)
Hang on. What’s going on? Excitement. Schlupp whips a ball in to Kramaric who, 12 yards out, powers an incredible header into the left corner to give Given no chance. Can they?
Goal! Aston Villa 2-0 Leicester (Sinclair 90)
Scott Sinclair has scored a goal! Yes, a goal. His last was in 2012. It was an absolute shocker from Schwarzer, though. Benteke hooked a ball over the top. Sinclair ran on to it in the box and hit a shot straight at the keeper who lets it through him. Very poor.
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87 min: Benteke has a shot from the edge of the box but Simpson takes the sting out of it with a block and Schwarzer gathers. There’s a bit of pushing and shoving after Cambiasso leaves a foot in on Hutton. It wasn’t much of a foot and Hutton’s a hypocrite if he thinks that was a bad challenge. He’s not exactly shy of excessive force now and then himself. But Mark Clattenburg tells everyone to put a stop to that nonsense. He doesn’t want this game to go on longer than it needs to either.
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86 min: I think many people may agree with JR in Illinois here: “Let us hope that Leicester don’t even this one up. I will let Rocky and Apollo Creed speak for everyone: ‘Apollo: Ain’t gonna be no rematch. Rocky: Don’t want one.’”
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84 min: But he whips it straight into Shay Given’s hands. Given has probably been the best player on the pitch today.
83 min: Mahrez, who I tipped as perhaps being influential on this game today, has been an abject mess. He has a chance to redeem himself with a free-kick which he’ll whip into the box from 40 yards out.
81 min: Villa are dropping deeper now and perhaps, dangerously, inviting Leicester on to them. Another change. Villa replace Weimann with 19-year-old local lad Jack Grealish.
79 min: But Cambiasso thunks it way over with none of the composure he has shown over almost two decades in professional football. That was bloody awful.
78 min: Leicester win a free-kick just over 30 yards out after James played a ball off Delph’s outstretched hand. It’s central. Cambiasso stands over it …
75 min: Sinclair gets his chance. He does, belatedly, replace the goalscorer Bacuna. It came after Kramaric saw a looping header land on the roof of the net. Leicester are still in this.
73 min: Leicester are stung to life. They pack the box and Given makes a point-blank save from Mahrez as the ball dropped to him 10 yards from goal and then smothers a second attempt from, I think, Kramaric. From the resulting ricochets Cambiasso picks up possession and shapes to shoot from 15 yards but Vlaar, who has shown himself to be a worthy leader in the past 20 minutes, makes a wonderful tackle at full stretch to block his attempted effort.
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70 min: Villa are looking handy now. They break once, but Benteke’s first touch is too heavy. Clark flies into a tackle that Norman Hunter would be proud to call his own to set up another break, but this time Weimann strays offside as Benteke plays him in. And on a third occasion Benteke is just put off by Upson as he pulls the trigger but sends his shot over. This is more like it.
69 min: Scott Sinclair just can’t get a break. He was stripped off and ready to come on for Bacuna just before that goal. He’s now getting dressed again and sitting back down. Poor lad.
https://twitter.com/Squawka/status/566959577422655489
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Goal! Aston Villa 1-0 Leicester (Bacuna 68)
Vlaar picks the ball up from the clearance and steps inside his marker before playing a cute pass in to Bacuna on the edge of the box. He takes the ball in his stride on his right foot, jinks past Simpson and curls a delicious shot into the right corner from the edge of the box. That’s a wonderful finish and about the first thing of quality in a dire match.
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66 min: There’s a bit of a power struggle going on in midfield now. Cleverly has come to life since being booted up in the air. Villa win a corner on the left. Westwood plays it to the back post. Leicester clear …
65 min: Wasilewski is off. And Ulloa is on for Leicester, who will go 4-4-2. Two strikers? Crazy stuff. Benteke just nodded a header harmlessly wide after Hutton found him in the box on his own. It was impossible for him to get any power onto it without fitting a motor to his neck and setting it on full throttle.
62 min: Jon Beaven offers an answer to a societal issue. “Do you think this game could be an answer to prison overcrowding? ‘Instead of jail, I hereby sentence you to Villa v Leicester. You get injury time off for good behaviour.’”
60 min: Konchesky reminds me that Cleverly is playing by flying into a tackle about a week late and sending the anonymous Villa midfielder hurtling into the air. That was a dangerous tackle. He’s rightly booked. Could have been worse. This time Westwood plays a cross into the box. It is overhit. It is woeful. Rather like this game.
59 min: It’s played short to Delph, who slices a hopeless effort wide from 25 yards. Some game this.
57 min: Villa win a free-kick after Benteke takes advantage of Upson’s grogginess and flicks the ball one way over his head and then the other. A discombobulated Upson grabs a hold of Benteke to stop him going anywhere and the whistle goes. The free-kick is 30 yards out on the right at an angle probably too great for a shot.
54 min: Matthew Upson has just been decked by Bacuna. There was no filth from the Aston Villa player, mind. He ran in to tackle Upson as he was clearing the ball and accidentally caught the defender in the face with his left elbow. For a moment it looks more serious than it turns out to be. A few minutes with the physio gets his eyes focused again, though, and he trots back on to the pitch.
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52 min: Villa try their luck on the wings again. Cissokho, whips a ball in to Benteke from the left this time but it is slightly behind Benteke and the Belgian can only head straight up into the air.
49 min: Kramaric tries to dribble his way back from the touchline in a huge arc to face the Aston Villa defence again but he is robbed of possession and Villa break. Benteke finds Hutton, who spreads the play out to Bacuna. He races down the wing and plays an early cross in towards Delph. The clearance falls to Hutton, who heads back into the penalty area. Benteke gambles and beats the offside trap and shoots point-blank at Schwarzer, who bravely smothers the attempt. That’s positive from Villa though. Yes, positive.
47 min: Delph should score. Clark plays a hopeful long diagonal ball forwards from the left-back position. Benteke collects – and after a fortunate ricochet off a defender – he bundles his way towards the box. He plays a short ball off to the overlapping Bacuna, whose cross is chipped in to Delph who, unmarked, somehow manages to miss the ball with his head and shoulder it over. That was a chance to liven this game up. And Delph missed it. Thanks Fabian.
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The second half, with apologies
Peep! Here we go. It has to get better.
So what’s Tim Sherwood thinking after watching that? It’s hard to see what Aston Villa are trying to do other than rely on a moment of magic from Benteke. Leicester look the more likely team to score if only because Kramaric, Mahrez and Schlupp look like they have some understanding of each others’ movement. Bacuna, Benteke and Weimann look like three musicians playing three different songs simultaneously.
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Half-time: Aston Villa 0-0 Leicester
Well that was a half of football. Just about. And there’ll be more of this in 15 minutes.
43 min: Benteke has the ball in the back of the net! But the whistle had gone for offside. A pass was pinged into his feet from Delph. He took the ball with his left foot in the box, cut back inside and finished sharply from 12 yards with his right. And all for nowt.
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41 min: Jonathan Pearce has taken to talking about the history of Villa Park and what a great stadium it is. He said something about it once being a boating lake. That’s how good this game is.
38 min: Leicester win their seventh corner. It’s dropped right in on top of Given, but amid a melee of bodies, the keeper is felled and the whistle goes for a foul. Here’s Jeremy Boyce with some stats and negativity about corners. “You’re talking about fruitless corners, well frankly most of them are. People (OK, fans) see corners as a big goal-scoring opportunity. However, stats show that on average 1 in 40 results directly in a goal, the other 39 not making it past the first traffic cone, straight to the keeper, too far/high, scuffed, taken short.” I’m not sure fans do see corners as that much of an opportunity anymore Jeremy, despite the increase in volume when a corner is given. That noise is almost like muscle-memory passed down through the years from fan to fan with nobody really ever wondering why.
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35 min: “Based on the first 30 minutes I can only admire the good sense of Villa fans who didn’t buy tickets for this match. Both teams should be eliminated ... a travesty for either to be in quarter-finals.” Mike MacKenzie in Canada is really enjoying this one.
32 min: The Leicester corner is cleared from Villa and Benteke races clear with a four on four situation emerging ahead of him. Weimann pulls off to the left, Bacuna to the right. But Benteke dwells on the ball too long and plays a pass behind the onrushing Hutton on the right to make a promising situation just, erm, a situation.
30 min: Shay Given makes a stunning save from James. Leicester drive into the box, Cambiasso looks to collect a pass on the edge of the area but dummies cleverly for James to run onto the ball behind him and leather a shot that looks for all the world to be heading into the top-right corner only for Given to spring across and tip it inches wide with his fingertips. Wonderful stuff from the old stopper.
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27 min: Shank! Hoik! Oof! They are the kind of sound effects that could have accompanied some dire attempts at clearances after Simpson plays a dangerous whipped-in ball from the right. Vlaar looks to lean on Kramaric to stop him heading the ball. It works. Kramaric tumbles to the turf. That was a penalty. but I can understand why it was hard for the referee to see what happened. Another corner is whipped in from the left. Given tips it out for another corner, which comes to nothing. Leicester are getting up a head of steam here.
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24 min: Villa have just hit the ‘Operation Try Some Old School Wing Play’ button. They win a couple of corners as first, Westwood, drives past Konchesky and delivers a decent ball in from the right that leads to a fruitless corner. And then Bacuna links up well with Cissokho on the left to win another fruitless corner on the left. They were fruitless not because they were terrible corners. Leciester just defended them well.
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21 min: Given dawdles with the ball at his feet and boots the ball at Mahrez. It deflects off the Leicester player for a goal-kick when it could have bounced anywhere. He was lucky there. That was sloppy.
20 min: Kramaric, Schlupp, Mahrez and Cambiasso just played some promising one-touch stuff. It didn’t really lead anywhere but it was tidier than we’ve seen in the past five minutes.
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17 min: This is ugly now. I was optimistic for around seven minutes at the start. Cambiasso, such a smooth operator generally, has just hoiked one into touch.
A stat!
8 - Aston Villa have won eight of their last nine home FA Cup matches. Hopeful.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 15, 2015
Mahrez has taken a knock to the knee. He’s hobbling around but looks to be OK. It was a little nibble from Delph that caught him. I’ve seem Mahrez in the flesh. There’s not much flesh to see. He’s quite possibly the slightest footballer I’ve ever seen.
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13 min: Benteke drops deep and watches Weimann scurry past him towards the Leicester goal. The Belgian looks to slide in his team-mate who carries his run on into the box but his pass is too heavy by a yard or two. That was good movement from Villa. They’ll need more of that to catch out this packed Leicester defence.
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11 min: Wasilewski hits the post for Leicester. It was a fine corner swung into the near post from Mahrez that the scary-looking Pole flicked towards the back post only to see it glance that very same back post and run out for a goal-kick. That was a great corner. Yes, a great corner.
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9 min: Tim Sherwood looks furtively around him as he is shown on the big screens at Villa Park for just a little longer than is comfortable. He gets a good reception from the Villa fans, however. Good old Tim.
7 min: Villa probe down the channels looking for opportunities on the left and then the right. Leicester close down the space diligently, though, and prevent Bacuna and Weimann from getting behind them. Leicester are growing into the game now after a tentative start.
5 min: Clark gets the Villa Park jitters and knocks an errant backpass straight out of play to concede a corner. That was a nervy old touch and extremely slack. Villa aren’t punished, though, thanks to a diabolical corner that wouldn’t have cleared a traffic cone, let alone a grown man, from Mahrez.
3 min: The corner is a deep one and hooked back to the edge of the box by Vlaar on the back post. It’s headed back in towards the six-yard box but Leicester stand firm and clear. This is reasonably positive from Villa, though.
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2 min: Villa start off by hogging the pink FA Cup ball. Playing sideways passes at the back and waiting for runs ahead of them. They’re patient and finally win a corner when the ball bounces off Mahrez after an attempted pass on the right.
Peep!
Leicester get the ball rolling. They’re wearing all blue. Villa are in their traditional claret and blue.
Well, as the teams emerge Villa Park isn’t quite as jaunty as I thought it would be. Leicester fans seem to be making most of the noise at the moment, with Nigel Pearson’s name being sung very loud indeed. Maybe Villa fans will reserve judgement on Sherwood until May.
As for Villa, how do they start scoring again? Well, one way would be to have Weimann and Bacuna offering more support to Benteke. He thrives when he has movement around him. As strong as he is, he can’t do it all alone. With runners in advance of him, he can use players as decoys and start to hit the target more often.
Leicester played very well against Arsenal in midweek with the Algeria international Riyad Mahrez particularly impressive. His movement is very good. He’s hard to pick up, he can pick a pass and he’s so quick when he’s dribbling with the ball. It may be that while Villa eyes are on Kramaric, Mahrez could find space to hurt Villa.
Christian Benteke has currently gone 340 minutes without a goal for Aston Villa in all competitions. pic.twitter.com/ccbwNd5hip
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) February 15, 2015
Or just under four games, in old money. Either way, he may be a little swamped by that stacked Leicester defence today.
Looking at that Leicester team again, it looks as though they are going to play a five-man defence. Against a team that doesn’t score. Hold on to your hats folks.
So, both sides are pretty much full strength. Ron Vlaar is back for Villa after a month missing with a knee injury. He’ll give them some much-needed leadership at the back. Leicester have had to bring in Wasilewski to replace the cup-tied Robert Huth at the back but Matthew Upson – who must be 48 now, surely – does start. That’s a surprise given that he was expected to be out with a foot injury.
The teams
Aston Villa: Given, Hutton, Vlaar, Clark, Cissokho, Cleverley, Westwood, Delph, Bacuna, Benteke, Weimann. Subs: Guzan, Okore, Sinclair, Cole, Sanchez, Lowton, Grealish.
Leicester: Schwarzer, Simpson, Morgan, Wasilewski, Upson, Konchesky, Mahrez, James, Cambiasso, Schlupp, Kramaric. Subs: Hammond, Vardy, King, Albrighton, Hamer, Moore, Ulloa.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear)
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Afternoon. I expect Villa Park will be a much jauntier place this afternoon. Although given the soporific nature of some of the games under Paul Lambert at Villa this season, that’s not saying much. Anyway, he’s gone and Tim Sherwood has replaced him in the manager’s chair. “It is a great honour to manage one of the biggest clubs in English football. I can’t wait to get started and I’m really looking forward to the challenge,” enthused Tim. The protests can stop and the fans can get on with supporting the new man who finally has a job he can call his own. Good on him. He won’t be looking after the team today. He’ll be sat up in the stands watching the caretaker manager Scott Marshall try to squeeze a rare goal out of his new charges.
A few Leicester fans may be envious of Villa having made a managerial change. It’s a week since Pearson was sacked then unsacked or never sacked in the first place. It was confusing to say the least. Having spoken to some Leicester fans recently they have said there has been a split in the support over whether Pearson should still be in charge. At Old Trafford, where Leicester lost 3-1, there were even some scuffles between pro-Pearson and anti-Pearson groups. Have the board been right to stick by him?
I couldn’t help but think of Leicester after reading Jacob Steinberg’s piece about ambitious clubs often having to make harsh decisions to progress to the next level. I see Leicester, and their wealthy Thai owners, possibly harbouring ambitions to follow in the footsteps of Southampton. Perhaps the owners feel Pearson has the right set of skills and belief in expansive football to take them there. Are they right? I, like many neutrals, have enjoyed watching Leicester at times this season but they have simply lost too many games. Pearson admits this and doesn’t hide from it. But if the club goes down this year any ambitious plans the owners have will have to be put on hold. An opportunity may have been missed.
But how seriously will either of these teams take this tie? They’re only a game away from the quarter-finals but one expects neither will want to pick up injuries with just 13 games remaining to save their skins in the top flight. We all remember what happened to Wigan after they won the Cup in 2013.
So how will this go? I’d back Leicester on recent performances – and Villa are the only team they have beaten in the Premier League this year – but it’s hard to know how much of a boost Villa will get from having a new man watching in the stands. Will the Tim Sherwood glare work its magic or has Paul Lambert left a team so bereft of confidence that another defeat is on the cards? Either way, a game that has no bearing on the league is probably a relief for both of these sides. They may even feel liberated. And I expect they’ll both be told that a replay is to be avoided at all costs.
My prediction: Aston Villa 1-2 Leicester
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