Aston Villa are through to the Carabao Cup semi-finals after they thrashed Liverpool 5-0 in the quarter-finals game played on Tuesday night at Villa Park.
The game which saw Liverpool with their youngest squad, which is the U23s was never going to be contest for Aston Villa, as the scoreline clearly states.
Liverpool who will be having their senior team in action at the Club World Cup in Qatar on Wednesday allowed the Under-23s boss Neil Critchley led a side containing five debutants and which had an average age of 19 years, six months and three days for the match.
While Villa made 10 changes from their Premier League defeat at Sheffield United, their vastly superior experience ensured they lived up to their favourites tag.
Liverpool conceded two freak goals in the space of three first-half minutes to allow the hosts to settle.
First, Conor Hourihane’s free-kick from the right deceived Caoimhin Kelleher, and the Reds keeper then saw an Ahmed Elmohamady cross deflect off Morgan Boyes and loop over him into the left corner.
Jonathan Kodjia added Villa’s third with a cool finish after Jota’s through ball before sweeping in Elmohamady’s cross from the right.
Wesley completed the scoring for the hosts, who reached the semi-finals of the competition for the first time since 2012-13.
Five-times winners Villa head into a two-legged semi-final in January.
Speaking after the game, Liverpool stand-in manager Neil Critchley talking to Sky Sports said:
“I thought we were magnificent. We were fantastic from the start, we had a couple of chances from the first whistle. We were really unfortunate to concede and then find ourselves 2-0 down. It was an incredible night and no-one wanted it to end. The support we had was unbelievable.
“The conduct of the Villa players was first class. For Dean Smith and John Terry to come in to our dressing room after the game and say the things they said… They said ‘keep going, good luck’ and wished us the best. A moment I will remember and the players will remember for the rest of their lives.
“Some of them showed the potential to one day play for us, or in the Premier League. They will know it was just part of their journey. My overwhelming feeling is one of immense pride.“
Aston Villa manager Dean Smith on BBC Radio 5 Live had this to say about the game:
“It was probably the weirdest major competition quarter-final I’ve seen or been involved in. They started brightly, they’ve got some technically gifted young players. We were clinical, professional and showed a good attitude. It was a bit of a no-win for us apart from getting through to a semi-final.
“I must credit the players. Before the game I used the word ‘attitude’ – it had to be right today. Everyone expected us to win, we expected to win, but you’ve still got to do the job. Even though we were playing a young #Liverpool team, we had James Chester who hadn’t played for 11 months, it was Jonathan Kodjia and Orjan Nyland’s first game of the season too. I thought Jota was a bit of a Rolls Royce for us tonight.
“Wesley needed that goal. He’s got a little bit of unfair stick. He’s a young player, he’s got great honesty and attitude. It was a good finish. It will do him the world of good.
“I was brought up coaching U18s and U23s, Liverpool played really well tonight but they’ll be disappointed with the result. They’ve got some starlets that will be performing at Premier League level in the next three or four years.”