In-form Aston Villa ran riot in Blackburn on Wednesday night with a resounding 4-0 victory at Ewood Park which moved them up to sixth in the English Premier League.
Rovers had dominated the first half hour only to be denied by a mixture of poor finishing and fine saves from Scott Carson before John Carew put the visitors ahead after 29 minutes.
England keeper Carson kept his nerve to keep Villa on level terms and Gareth Barry scored their second from the penalty spot after Rovers skipper Ryan Nelsen was sent off in the 53rd minute.
Manager Martin O'Neill hailed a "majestic" captain's performance from Barry which moves his side to within a point of fourth-placed Chelsea.
"I thought Gareth was terrific. He played a captain's role and was really strong and very good. I thought he was majestic tonight," O'Neill said.
Rovers boss Mark Hughes agreed with the penalty decision but questioned whether Nelsen deserved to get sent off on a night when his side struggled with a number of the referee's decisions.
"I think he's given it for a shirt pull and it was probably the right decision but I don't think it warranted a sending-off in fairness," Hughes said.
"From that point on we were trying to get back into the game at 2-0 down but they got a couple of breakaways, both of which I had my doubts about because I thought they might be offside," the former Manchester United striker said.
"But it was just one of those nights we've got to draw a line under and move on. We know Villa aren't four goals better than us and so do they. This is not going to dent our confidence," the Welshman said.
Villa had justifiable claims for a second penalty dismissed 12 minutes from time after Ashley Young tumbled in the box under pressure from defender Christopher Samba.
Young responded by sealing Villa's victory two minutes later with a superb finish past Blackburn keeper Brad Friedel after getting onto the end of Gabriel Agbonlahor's cut-back to the edge of the box.
And to round off a thoroughly impressive evening substitute Marlon Harewood grabbed the fourth in the final minute after Friedel could only parry Carew's initial shot into his path to seal Villa's fourth consecutive victory.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
RSS