Weird night says Smith after win

ASTON VILLA manager Dean Smith said his side’s 5-0 Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool’s youngest ever side had been one of the weirdest matches he had ever been involved in.

With Premier League leaders Liverpool playing in Doha, Villa faced an unrecognisable line-up featuring no senior players.

Liverpool’s starting side had only 16 first-team appearances between them and had an average age of 19.4, a club record.

None of the Liverpool players were alive the last time Villa won a trophy, when they beat Leeds to win this competition in 1996.

Villa themselves made 10 changes from the side that lost to Sheffield United in the Premier League on Saturday, but were still put in a “no-win” situation against the Anfield kids on a strange night at rainy Villa Park.

“It was probably the weirdest major competition quarterfinal I’ve seen or been involved in,” Smith said after the match.

“They started brightly, they’ve got some technically gifted young players. We were clinical, professional and showed a good attitude. It was a bit of a no-win for us apart from getting through to a semifinal.

“I must credit the players. Before the game I used the word ‘attitude’ – it had to be right today. Everyone expected us to win, we expected to win, but you’ve still got to do the job.

“Even though we were playing a young Liverpool team, we had James Chester who hadn’t played for 11 months, it was Jonathan Kodjia and

Orjan Nyland’s first game of the season too. I thought Jota was a bit of a Rolls Royce for us tonight.

“Wesley needed that goal. He’s got a little bit of unfair stick. He’s a young player, he’s got great honesty and attitude. It was a good finish. It will do him the world of good.

“I was brought up coaching U-18s and U-23s, Liverpool played really well tonight but they’ll be disappointed with the result.

By the final whistle, there were some sobering statistic. This was Liverpool’s heaviest League Cup defeat, eclipsing a 4-1 loss to West Ham in 1988 and a 6-3 reverse by Arsenal in 2007.

Liverpool’s defeat was their first in 20 games across all competitions (W16

D3), with Aston Villa becoming the first side to beat them since Napoli in the Champions League back in September.

Of course, given the unique circumstances, the result should almost come with an asterisk. Football statistics do not work like that though, so into the record books the result will go. – Reuters