April 2009
Villa v Man U
With
Xabi Alonso suspended and
Alex away on international duty
McCann and
Esposito were called into the starting eleven for the home leg of our Champions League Semi Final. Jan
Lastuvka was suffering one of his seemingly regular crises of confidence so
Julio Cesar was preferred between the sticks.
Esposito got us off to a great start with a goal after ten minutes after good work by
Pennant on the right and we enjoyed some good moments in the remainder of the half. United rarely threatened but when they did
Julio Cesar was on hand to make some decent saves. We enjoyed a pretty dominant second 45 minutes with
Shay Given making three or four world-class saves and defenders twice hacking the ball off the line. In the end all we had to show for our pressure was a goal from
Hleb just after the restart and the 2-0 win could have been more.
Hero : Esposito – an excellent display in place of our missing Brazilian.
Villa v Liverpool
With
Arsenal showing no sign of dropping any points it seemed highly unlikely that we would be able to retain the Premiership title but we still had to play the champions in waiting before the end of the season so it was key that we kept on winning too. The visit of 5th place Liverpool was every bit as hard as I had expected and a tight contest was still scoreless at half time. There was a touch of good fortune about our opening goal ten minutes after the restart,
Luque’s shot taking a deflection on its way past a stranded
Chris Kirkland. Entering the last five minutes of the game it looked like we would hold out for the win but
Djibril Cisse had other ideas, taking advantage of a poor throw in to snatch the equaliser. Then with the game entering stoppage time substitute
Angel scored the winner with a powerful header from a pinpoint cross by
Alex.
Hero : Alex – provider of both of our goals.
League Position: 2nd
Man U v Villa
I fully expected an onslaught from United as they tried to recover from their two-goal deficit and I didn’t see us keeping a clean sheet so I told the lads to go out and look for an away goal. After 20 minutes
Luque did just that when he weaved his way through the United rearguard to score with a great finish. Their central defenders were allowing the Spaniard a lot of space and he repeated the trick just after the half hour to put us totally in control. When he completed his hat trick in the 40th minute I knew that I was witnessing something special and, 3-0 ahead at the break, I felt certain that we were through. By his time the home side were in disarray and we took advantage ruthlessly with
Luque adding two more goals in the second half to complete a magnificent display and set a new club record.
Hero : Luque – five goals – what can you say?
Man City v Villa
It says much about the pressure that we applied for long periods that the Man of the Match award went to City’s young keeper
Kasper Schmeichel who pulled off a string of fine saves. Our own
Julio Cesar was also called into action to good effect and the game was decided by a single goal scored by
Luque on the half hour. The Spaniard excels at receiving the ball some 25 yards out and making a piercing run through the centre of the opposing defence and that was the blueprint for his goal in this game.
Hero : Luque – a crucial winning goal that keeps us on track for a 2nd place finish.
League Position: 2nd
Fulham v Villa
I was keen to rest a few players for the midweek trip to London and I have to say that I was delighted with how several of the replacements performed. It is always a risk to disrupt a winning team and with some of the players coming in only too aware that they would be leaving in the summer there was the real danger of some poor performances. But it was quite the opposite as Angel scored twice in the first 30 minutes and Grisales added a 3rd before half time. A late goal from Esposito rounded off a fairly comfortable win.
Hero : Pennant – Jermaine has matured into a fine player and is having an excellent season for us on the right wing.
League Position: 2nd
Another veteran left the club today after
Julio Ricardo Cruz agreed an early termination of his contract. Although he rarely featured for us this season the Argentinean was a major success since he arrived in my first season in charge. In over 180 appearances for the club he scored 80 goals, made over 40 and won 18 Man of the match Awards.
Villa v Brum
With
Man U having beaten
Arsenal earlier in the day our televised battle with our fiercest rivals assumed an even greater degree of importance as we sought to close the gap on the league leaders. The visitors exerted some early pressure but we weathered the storm and took the lead mid way through the first half when
Alex surged into the area to fire home. We never really got into our stride to be honest but we did just enough to keep our noses in front and the 1-0 win took us to within six points of the leaders.
Hero : Alex – a crucial goal to give us a vital win.
League Position: 2nd
We now faced the most important seven days of this season with our Champions League Semi Final games against
Juventus either side of a trip to
Arsenal.
Alex was suspended for the 1st leg in Turin so I started
Esposito on the left wing. I told the lads to not be overawed and just play the kind of football that had taken us this far already.
Juventus v Villa
We were under the cosh from the off and were extremely fortunate still to be in the game at half time, a combination of good goalkeeping from
Julio Cesar and some profligate finishing by the home side kept the game scoreless at the break. When captain
Mellberg limped off shortly after the restart I feared the worst and within minutes we were a goal down despite
Samuel’s heroic efforts to clear the ball off the line. We were able to break forward occasionally but were generally preoccupied with some desperate defending. We somehow made it to the end of the game with no further damage but we were so outclassed that I am not too optimistic for the return leg.
Hero : Julio Cesar – only a great display by the keeper kept us in the tie.
Gunners v Villa
Having surprisingly lost the League Cup Final to
Blackburn and then going out of the FA Cup at the Semi Final stage to
Charlton, Arsenal would be absolutely determined to hang on to the top spot in the Premiership. I was hoping that my somewhat weary-looking team would be able to conjure up a win. Any hopes that I may have had that the home side would be dispirited were quickly dashed and it was clear that they were up for the challenge as they started brightly. But somewhat against the run of play we took the lead through
Hleb after quarter of an hour. With the home side pressing
Julio Cesar was kept busy and the keeper was finally beaten by
Thierry Henry five minutes before half time. Our hopes were raised when the home side had a man sent off with 20 minutes remaining but knowing that a draw would suit their purposes they defended deep and held on without too much trouble.
Hero : Luque – deserved a goal for his superb work up front.
League Position: 2nd
Villa v Juventus
I knew that it would take a much-improved performance to see us through to the Final and I was pleased to welcome back
Alex after his suspension. The visitors put in a typical Italian defensive performance and sadly we just lacked the spark to breach their rearguard. We came close on a couple of occasions but with our attacking threat shackled brilliantly by the visitors the game petered out into a 0-0 draw and our European dream was over.
Villan : Italian defenders – they rarely gave us a sniff of goal all evening.
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