Benteke’s hat-trick lifts Villa
CHRISTIAN BENTEKE rescued Aston Villa from the drop zone with a brilliant late free-kick to seal his hat-trick and salvage a point against relegation rivals Queens Park Rangers. Tim Sherwood’s team were set to drop into the bottom three when Charlie Austin scored his 17th Premier League goal of the season 12 minutes from the end, before Benteke’s intervention five minutes later to cap off a pulsating game. The point lifts QPR above Burnley to 18th on goal difference, while Villa move above Hull to 16th. Sherwood said: ‘I’m disappointed with a point when we’ve dominated the match like that. The referee should have stopped it at half-time. Anyone who has seen that football match knows it shouldn’t have been close. ‘But it’s not about what you deserve, it’s about what you actually get. This could be a vital point come the end of the
From Back Page season. When you’re going so late into the game and Christian’s had to pull that one out of the bag, we’re grateful for that.’ Chris Ramsey was equally frustrated that his team only took a point from Villa Park, having twice led, initially through Matt Phillips’ header. Benteke equalised with a deflected shot before putting Villa ahead before the break with a cool finish. Defender Clint Hill levelled the game with a header before Austin struck and Benteke scored his seventh goal in five Villa games to ensure honours finished even. Ramsey praised Benteke,
saying: ‘He is a formidable player. When you are playing against people that can pull out that little bit of magic, sometimes you have to hold your hands up. His free-kick was a fantastic strike in off the post against a top keeper, who had it been anywhere else probably would have saved it.’ The QPR head coach added: ‘Based on the way we played in the second half and the beginning of the first half you have to be disappointed you haven’t been able to get above the line, which was the aim before we started the last two games. We showed tonight we’re more than capable of doing that. I don’t know what we need but we’re probably going to have to win three games. We know our next home games will be very important. We have the potential cup final against Leicester on the last game of the season. ‘Any team would take being in it right till the end and then roll the dice. You don’t want to become detached where every game is a mountain to climb. There is a belief in the camp they are capable of surviving, there is no doom and gloom.’ Sherwood added: ‘We’re creating chances, aren’t we? I can’t really understand why they scored 12 goals before I came in, incredible really for players with that kind of strike- rate... we must keep our tempo up and shore it up at the back. Otherwise we could find ourselves in trouble.’ Sherwood now takes his team to Tottenham and Manchester City. ‘Who is to say we can’t go to any of those games and win?’ he said. ‘We’ll try. We can’t do what QPR have done today, we’ll play on the front foot.’