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Key occasions
21 minutes: One other pull-back from Rashford, however this time he’s pulling again Ng and Cardiff have a free kick and a little bit of a breather.
20 minutes: The ball is spending nearly all of its time in Cardiff’s defensive third. Rashford does properly on the left once more and pulls again to Tielemans, however Ramsey throws himself in the way in which of the shot!
18 minutes: Probability! Watkins is performed in to the left of objective and tries to prod a shot previous Horvath, however the keeper will get one thing on it and the ball dribbles huge!
17 minutes: One other intelligent nook from Villa. It drops to Rashford, a few yards contained in the penalty space, however he misses his kick.
15 minutes: Cardiff proceed to defend their space fairly properly, however Villa’s attacking has been a bit imprecise to date – it appears like they’ve been as chargeable for their strikes breaking down as Cardiff’s defenders, however sooner or later they’re going to go an entire transfer with out messing up.
12 minutes: … from which Villa try to provide one thing they presumably labored on on the coaching pitches, and which presumably labored a bit higher after they did. This time it’s performed to Bailey, however badly sufficient for a Cardiff participant to intercept it and boot clear.
11 minutes: Now Rashford jinks and sprints to the byline, however his cross is minimize out and deflects behind for a nook.
9 minutes: Ethan Horvath makes his first save of the night time, stopping Rashford’s 30-odd-yard free-kick with some ease.
6 minutes: A pleasant cross from the left nearly does the trick, however Bailey can’t fairly attain it on the far put up.
5 minutes: Cardiff have dropped right into a 5-4-1 formation when Villa have the ball, two strains on the sting of their penalty space, difficult Villa to discover a method by them.
3 minutes: The ball breaks to Bailey within the field, and he executes a really snazzy 360-degree spin. Doesn’t result in a lot, however will need to have felt superior.
2 minutes: Perry Ng takes an age over a throw-in, after which chucks it at a teammate off whom it bounces into contact.
1 min: Peeeeeeep! Cardiff get the ball rolling.
The gamers are not within the tunnel. They’re on the pitch and Cardiff are huddling as I sort. Villa don’t hassle with that form of factor. Anyway, soccer imminent!
The gamers are within the tunnel, the place the referee is laying down some floor guidelines for the 2 captains.
Aaron Ramsey, who captains Cardiff after recovering from a hamstring damage, has a chat: “It’s an excellent competitors and we’re actually trying ahead to this problem. We all know how powerful it’s going to be. Hopefully it’ll be a memorable night time for us. We all know how troublesome it’ll be however hopefully we’ll have a type of particular FA Cup evenings.”
“We need to be as aggressive as we will be on this recreation,” says the Cardiff supervisor Omer Riza, who has given the 19-year-old defender Dylan Lawlor a full debut. “They’ve put out a powerful aspect so … it must be attention-grabbing. Something can occur within the FA Cup. It’s a one-off state of affairs. If we flip up and we do all the things proper that we will, you by no means know. It’s good character constructing.”
As solely revealed within the Guardian earlier this month, semi-automated offside know-how is being trialled on this season’s FA Cup from the fifth spherical onwards. Meaning this would be the first recreation within the nation to make use of it.
Workforce information
The groups are in, and these are the gamers who will resolve this tie, with Emi Martinez declared match to take his place in a powerful Aston Villa aspect:
Aston Villa: Martinez, Garcia, Konsa, Bogarde, Maatsen, McGinn, Tielemans, Bailey, Asensio, Rashford, Watkins. Subs: Olsen, Digne, Rogers, Ramsey, Kamara, Rowe, Zych, Jimoh.
Cardiff: Horvath, Fish, Goutas, Lawlor, Ng, Ramsey, Colwill, Giles, El Ghazi, Willock, Robinson. Subs: Turner, O’Dowda, Mannsverk, Robertson, Salech, Bagan, Davies, Ashford, Nyakuhwa.
Referee: Peter Bankes.
Howdy world!
“We aren’t a contender within the FA Cup to win the title,” mentioned Villa boss Unai Emery forward of this recreation. “We aren’t contenders. Why? As a result of there are different groups with extra choices than us to win this competitors.”
Oh.
Forward of this fifth-round tie it’s exhausting to learn these feedback and never simply suppose, oh properly sod it then, I’ll simply learn my e book. However wait till you hear what Omer Riza needed to say about his Cardiff aspect, having fun with a quick breather from the battle for Championship survival (they’re nineteenth, six factors and various objective distinction above the underside three):
“I’d prefer to put my strongest staff out so you may have an actual go at it – and if we had been twelfth within the league I’d don’t have any points with that,” Riza mentioned. “However we have now simply acquired too many much more necessary video games developing, that are about surviving and staying within the Championship. Typically I believe it [would have been] finest that we went out within the third spherical. We’re undoubtedly not rolling over and saying ‘take the sport’, but it surely’s irritating we will’t be at full-strength and have an actual go at it.”
So what we have now here’s a recreation between a staff that doesn’t need to be within the competitors and one other that thinks they could as properly not be in it. And if that doesn’t get your juices flowing on the finish of an extended week I don’t know what’s going to.
For what it’s value I believe Emery is improper: the 2 finest groups within the nation (in response to the league desk) are already out of the Cup, Chelsea likewise, and the groups in sixth and eighth are taking part in one another on Sunday. Positive, Manchester Metropolis are nonetheless concerned, have a useful draw and look a bit ominous, however Villa seem like very possible cup-winners to me.
There are some damage points proper now, although. “Matty Money, shut, however we’ll see,” Emery mentioned. “Pau [Torres] not, Tyrone Mings doubt, Emiliano Martinez doubt, Barkley not, Onana doubt, Kamara doubt, they’re near a come again however we’ll see. Malen is sick, hopefully he can get well. Being sick is completely different.” Their line-up tonight might be fearsome, or it might be a bit feeble.
None of that is very promising, I can’t lie. However stick with me! It’s a humorous previous recreation, and perhaps it will develop into an excellent one.