Carling Cup – Full Time review: Birmingham City versus Aston Villa
It was the home side, Birmingham City who began the match with a bang as they scored within the first fifteen minutes of the encounter. After pressurizing the Aston Villa defence with their persistent monopoly of possession inside the first ten minutes of
the match, Birmingham were awarded a penalty kick in the 11th minute of the encounter as Cameron Jerome played in Lee Bowyer inside the Villa penalty area. However, Bowyer was pulled down by Richard Dunne as the referee pointed to the spot.
The penalty kick which was taken by Sebastian Larsson was successfully converted by the former Arsenal man into the match’s first goal for the Blues who took the lead in emphatic fashion against their city rivals.
During 28th minute of the encounter, Birmingham looked as if they had scored second goal of the match but the linesman raised his flag for a foul inside the Villa penalty area. The Aston Vila defence was in chaos but they were once again bailed
out of trouble thanks to Scott Dann’s infringement on Brad Freidel in Villa’s goal. However, that wasn’t the end of the drama as in the 30th minute; Villa pulled one goal back as Agbonlahor scored their equalizing goal.
The Englishman collected the ball on the left side of the penalty area and then produced a fine finish as he curled the ball into the right hand side of the Birmingham City goal past the despairing goalkeeper Ben Foster. Ashley Young and Clark were involved
in the build-up play to the goal for Villa as Houllier’s men found a way back into the match through some ingenious of their own. In the 33rd minute, Birmingham had a chance to take the lead again as Jerome was played in by Zigic but the tall striker
lobed his effort wide of the mark as Villa lived to fight another day.
Nonetheless, the first half came to an end as Birmingham failed to make their excessive possession of the ball count for a goal in the dying minutes of first period. The first half ended with the score line at 1-1.
The second half kicked off with a yellow card for Dann, as the Birmingham centre back was booked for his foul on Gabriel Agbonlahor. Dann’s tackle left the English striker seething in pain but the youngster recovered in time to continue for Villa.
The match got pretty feisty in the second half as tackles started to fly in especially in the midfield area. The referee for the match, Chris Foy let one or two late tackles go unpunished, this move of his encouraged other players to take liberty with some
of their challenges as the game turned ugly. The aggressive tackling threatened to get out of hand but the referee regained control of the match with some strong decisions as he penalized, Steven Carr for his foul on Stephen Warnock. The Birmingham City captain
was booked for his late tackle on Aston Villa’s left back who was clearly not at all happy with the challenge.
From the sixtieth minute onwards, it was all Aston Villa for a moment as Gerard Houllier’s side looked to take the lead by keeping hold of the ball. Their full backs pushed up making it difficult for Birmingham City to launch the ball up field without having
their strikers in an offside position, this clever tactical change by Houllier also allowed his team to sustain their ball control as they pushed Birmingham on the back foot by inducing wave after wave of attack.
In the 77th minute, Craig Gardener almost gave his team the lead following a wonderful piece of skill which opened up space for him just outside the Aston Villa penalty area. However, the ex-Villa man’s striker was just off target against his
former club. Regardless, his flair filled move brought the crowd on their feet.
In the 81st minute of the second half, Villa surged forward as Agbonlahor played in Stephen Ireland. The ex-Manchester City man’s shot was saved by Ben Foster as the rebound fell to Young whose ensuing shot was eventually blocked by Birmingham’s
defence.
It was a fine move by Villa which in all honesty deserved a goal at the end of it. In the 84th minute, Birmingham finally scored the goal which gave them the lead in the dying moments of the match. A deflected shot by Zigic found a way past Brad
Friedel who couldn’t keep the ball out.
The goal sent the home crowd into mad celebrations as Birmingham went up by 2 goals to one. Despite a late attacking surge by Villa, Houllier’s men could not gain parity with their arch rivals as Birmingham eventually won the match by 2-1 and in doing so
they progressed to the semi-finals of the Caring Cup.
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