Club Focus - Aston Villa - The return to Wembley
John Carew’s second half hat-trick sent Aston Villa to their second semi-final of the season, despite going into the interval with a two-goal deficit.
The Villans will now play for the second time at the Wembley stadium in what will be an exciting clash against current FA Cup holders, Chelsea. Martin O’Neill was quick to comment on the draw; "We are delighted to be in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and we will take on anybody. Chelsea are one of the best sides in Europe but we will take them on and we certainly don't fear them”. He said. If Villa can dispose of the tournament’s current favourites, O’Neill’s side will be well on course for their first piece of silverware.
While the Villa players can celebrate what turned out to be a 4-2 thrashing of Reading, their dire first-half performance will not be forgotten. In the first-half, Reading were without a doubt the better side and they warranted their two goal lead. Reading began the game playing high-tempo football, surprising a Villa side that still appeared to be hung-over from their Carling Cup final heartache. Their control over the game was evident after one of a series of corners found Shane Long who put the home side in front after 27 minutes. Perhaps the decision to disallow John Carew’s goal for an offside was still on the player’s minds as the Birmingham side looked vulnerable when Reading attacked. The Royals were 2-0 up three minutes before half-time after Gylfi Sigurdsson's pass sent through Jimmy Kébé on the right-flank. The Reading winger then delivered a cut-back pass which eluded the Villa defenders, who were guilty of ball-watching, and found its way to Long who was able to strike effortlessly past Brad Friedel.
Aston Villa’s FA Cup hopes were hanging by a thread after O’Neill’s players were guilty of complacency, almost forgetting that it was an FA Cup quarter-final match. The defence, that has been almost faultless in recent games, showed signs of tiredness and a dip in form after the back four were opened up by the Royals with their quick, incisive passing game. The man of the moment, John Carew, hinted at his manager’s harsh words at half-time; “We were struggling in the first half and the gaffer told us some serious words at the break. I won't go into what he said but you can see on the pitch what happened.” Said Carew.
As Mike Dean marked the beginning of the second-half, the Royals would not have expected all their hard work in the first-half to be undone after a three-goal quick fire spell in the space of 10 minutes. Ashley Young emphatically scored the first Villa goal, halving Reading’s advantage, before John Carew headed in a perfect delivery from Stewart Downing. Having scored the equaliser, the Birmingham side pushed forward with the momentum they had created from their two goals and on 57 minutes, Warnock was perfectly placed to send in a centred ball that found Carew who turned in the cross with the outside of his boot. From that moment on, Villa were rampant. Emile Heskey had an excellent chance to put the game beyond doubt before John Carew was brought down in the penalty area by Ivar Ingimarsson. Just as he did in the previous round against Crystal Palace, the Norwegian hammered his penalty into the back of the net, sending the Villans into the last four of the competition.
Interestingly, Carew was not going to start the game if it was not for Gabriel Agbonlahor pulling out due to a stomach upset. However, the Norwegian certainly made a point to the Northern Irishman who has recently chosen Heskey in front of Carew to partner Agbonlahor up front. O’Neill not only praised his striker’s performance, but also claimed that his centre-forward had much more to offer in terms of goals; “John at his hungriest can perform like he did today. He got the equalising goal for us and his game lifted two or three-fold more. The next thing you know he's controlling and holding players off which he wasn't doing in the first half. This is the point: he can do it. I'm not asking him to be scoring a hat-trick every week, but a level of performance that is up there with top-class centre-forwards.” He said.
With John Carew finally finding his form and O’Neill finding himself in his second semi-final of the season, the disappointment of the early exit in the Europa League has been well and truly forgotten.
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