Villa 2(3) – Leicester 2(2) – WEMBLEY, WEMBLEY!

Aston Villa have booked their place in a ninth League Cup final since winning the first cup in 1961 after beating Leicester City 3-2 on aggregate at Villa Park.

Trezeguet’s injury-time winner settled the two-legged tie which was level at 2-2, after evenly poised home and away legs. Not many would have predicted Villa progress to Wembly, although you may have predicted had you explored all the possibilities with Soccer Predictions.

PANDEMONIUM AT VILLA PARK

Pandemonium, a pitch invasion and a third Wembley visit in as many seasons is a reality for Villa fans who were preparing themselves for a penalty shoot-out as Leicester City and Kelechi Iheanacho chalked off Matt Targett’s opener.

It was Villa’s right back at the King Power Stadium, and the left-back at Villa Park – as Targett got his second or the club. In similar fashion to his first against Brighton in the Premier League, Grealish was the architect as he slipped in Targett down the left side to slam past Kasper Schmeichel within 15 minutes. Advantage Villa.

Orjan Nyland replaced Pepe Reina from Villa’s last-minute win over Watford last week, as the Norwegian kept his Carabao Cup starting spot. He made four crucially important interventions from James Maddison and Iheancho in-between Villa taking a lead against the run of play.

Leicester then failed to make any inroads from there on into half time with Harvey Barnes and Ayoze Perez were unable to crack an organised Villa back five when defending their solitary goal before the interval.

LEICESTER LEVEL

It was Iheanacho’s sixth goal in our games against Villa that drew the Foxes back on level terms for the second time in the tie. The Nigerian forward now has three more goals against Villa than any other club after playing for both Manchester City and Leicester.

He converted Barnes’ cross after Brendan Rodgers’ side swept the ball across Villa’s low block with efficiency. Defending in front of the Holte End was however an advantage even if attacking towards a stand of Leicester fans seemed daunting.

With the Foxes’ tails up, Frederic Guilbert was replaced by the experience of Ahmed Elmohamady late in the second period. The Egyptian had scored twice this League Cup campaign.

Whilst he didn’t quite manage a goal on this occasion, such as the quality of his assist, Egyptian team-mate Trezeguet volleyed home deep into additional time.

Villa will face either Manchester City or Manchester United on Sunday, March 1 at Wembley.