Aston Villa beat Preston North End today in the FA Cup Quarter Final to secure a trip to Wembley at the end of April. In the semi-final, Villa will face Crystal Palace.
It has been eighteen long days since Villa beat Club Brugge in the Champions League, but football returned this weekend following the International break. Preston were the hosts and although the visitors were heavy favourites, Villans know too well not to take anything for granted. Preston may be a Championship side, but they are undefeated at Deepdale since November and are known for being a hard side to break down.
Nothing but a professional performance would do for Emery’s side.
Report: Preston North End 3-0 Aston Villa
Emery named a strong side with the only real surprise being Ollie Watkins starting on the bench as Marcus Rashford was handed a start up front.
Villa dominated the ball for the majority of the game but struggled to create any clear-cut chances until they eventually broke the deadlock after 58 minutes.
Marco Asensio picked the ball up in the middle of the park, the ball came to Lucas Digne via Jacob Ramsey who played a low cross into the Preston box where Rashford was on hand to guide the ball beyond David Cornell in the Preston goal to score his first since his arrival from Manchester United in January.
Any hopes of an upset from the Championship side were ended five minutes later when Morgan Rogers won a penalty after being fouled by Andrew Hughes. Rashford stepped up and slotted home to double his tally.
A further eight minutes later, Villa confirmed the win when Ramsey picked up the ball in the middle of the park, ran through the Preston defence before shooting from the edge of the box to make it 0-3.
Emery, being the perfectionist, would have been disappointed in Villa’s lack of creativity in the first half but would have been made up for by the response in the second.
Villa now head to Wembley knowing they are just two games away from a potential trophy win.
1 Comment
Impressive second-half turnaround by Villa. Rashford finally delivering what fans expected when he joined—clinical finishing under pressure. Still, the lack of first-half creativity is worrying if we’re serious about silverware. Palace won’t be as forgiving. Thoughts on Emery benching Watkins?