Aston Villa reach FA Cup semi-finals

National World - LocalTV

A trip to Wembley ahead, and they’ll be wanting another shortly after…

Transcript

00:00Charlie, let's start and look at Aston Villa in terms of their situation. I mean, they've

00:06reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, a long time coming as well in the last few seasons

00:11they've sort of struggled to get to the latter stages. Where do you see this sort of priority

00:18looking before we go into the priorities with the Champions League as well? Let's just look

00:24at the game, obviously three-nil away from home at Preston, a favourable draw as we mentioned.

00:29They obviously got that favourable draw in the Champions League as well. Things are just

00:33sort of piecing together at the right time, it seems. But in terms of the game, I mean,

00:38they had a job to do away from home and they seem to get it done.

00:41Yeah, they absolutely did. The first half away at Deepdale was a little bit tentative

00:46at times and Preston actually probably looked the more likely team to score, throwing balls

00:50into the box, long throws and quite awkward crosses into the area. Martínez having to

00:55deal with a few. But then second half, completely different story. Marcus Rashford scoring his

00:59first two goals for the club. The first one, a proper striker's finish as he poked home

01:03from a Lugardine cross. Second one was a penalty, but he still got to step up and take it and

01:07he did it in style. He didn't even look at the ball once. He just stared down the goalkeeper's

01:11eyes and then made sure he made the first move before slotting it home. And then the

01:15goal for Jacob Ramsey as well. What a goal it was, turning away from his defender, running

01:1925 or 30 yards before firing to that far bottom left-hand corner. The Villa fans in attendance,

01:24thousands of them, in the Bill Shankly Kop. Absolutely loving life. And rightly so, they're

01:29off to Wembley for the first time in five years.

01:33Yeah, and they face Crystal Palace in the next round. I mean, a Wembley semi-final's

01:39great. A chance to get to an FA Cup final for Unai Emery would be unbelievable with

01:43this Villa group. They haven't beaten Palace at all this season. In the last few times

01:48they've met as well, they've sort of struggled against them. But you'd probably argue it's

01:53a favourable one in terms of Forest, the Manchester City and the other half as well.

01:58If they are to get to the final, do you feel there's nothing to lose, Unai Emery, a real

02:02chance at silverware and this could be the perfect opening for it?

02:06Yeah, I think obviously Palace, the Villa fans, will be worried about the previous meetings.

02:10It's been pretty terrible against them in recent times, especially last season as well

02:14at the end of a 5-0 defeat at Solhurst Park. I know everything was wrapped up with the

02:17Champions League at that point, so it didn't really matter, but it was still a painful

02:20one nonetheless. And of course, that kind of carried over into this season with more

02:23pain against Palace. But as you say, Nottingham Forest doing an incredible job in the Premier

02:29League this season under Nuno Espirito Santo. Manchester City, not quite the same city of

02:33old, but still so, so powerful. I think it's something ridiculous like seven or eight semi-finals

02:39in a row in the FA Cup for them. So they're very good in this competition. Villa avoiding

02:44both of those and getting Palace is probably the best case scenario. And I think Emery

02:47will be looking at that one confidently. Anything can happen at Wembley. Of course,

02:52neutral turf, not having to go to Solhurst Park again is a bonus. And yeah, Villa confident

02:57I think with all their fan base and their support can hopefully do one over Palace.

03:02And Marcus Rashford, he's sort of come into his own at Villa way more confident it seems

03:08in the last few games and he's linked up fantastically with Marco Sengio as well. That January window

03:13is looking like it's proving to possibly be the difference. I mean, in terms of Rashford,

03:20how important is it that they maybe look to make his deal permanent? Because if he can

03:23get back to the Rashford of just four or five years ago, maybe even less at times, he's

03:29one of the best players in the league. And that is a very big potential to take Villa

03:34forward.

03:35Absolutely. And we've seen how much pace he's still got. 27 years of age, he's in his prime

03:41playing so, so well on that left-hand side, but also through the centre. Ollie Watkins

03:45didn't start against Preston. He was actually fit enough to start, but Emery decided to

03:49go for Rashford instead. He got his first two goals before that, as you kind of alluded

03:53to, he got four assists for Marco Sengio in the eight games before that. So incredible

03:58form so far. It looks like he's returning to his former self. And I think that 40 million

04:02pound buy option is definitely a possibility this summer.

04:07And let's just look at Jacob Ramsey. I mean, he's sort of come into his own as well throughout

04:11the season. He's been a real key cog in terms of Villa's progression in the Premier League

04:17at times and the Champions League as well. He's sort of proven that he can take it onto

04:22the bigger stages as well. How impressed with him have you been watching him and Villa fans

04:26as well? And then on top of that, Unai Emery must be so delighted that he's come in and

04:31made such an impact in such a short space of time.

04:35It's just such a relief for Jacob Ramsey, of course, being a boyhood Villa fan. He's

04:39so excited to be playing at Wembley for the first time. He's had so many injuries over

04:43the last few years and four throughout 2023-24. I think he missed something like 37 or 38

04:48games throughout that season because of injury. Started this campaign as well, wasn't quite

04:53at full fitness, but he's just since that Celtic game, really the Champions League he's

04:56kicked on, he's turned a corner and he looks like he could be starting many games, maybe

05:00even ahead of the likes of Marcus Rashford and Ollie Watkins with Rashford going central.

05:04So had an incredible impact and hopefully he can continue that.

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