21 Jan 2010

Villa reach Wembley after 10-goal thriller

11:15 am on 21 January 2010

Aston Villa has reached the final of English football's League Cup final after fighting back from 2-0 down to beat Blackburn Rovers 6-4 in a thrilling semi-final second leg.

Villa, 7-4 winners on aggregate, will play Manchester United or Manchester City at Wembley on February 28, thanks to an astonishing comeback after Rovers were reduced to 10 men when defender Christopher Samba was sent off.

VIlla, 1-0 up from the first leg at Blackburn, found themselves 2-1 behind Nikola Kalinic scored twice for Rovers in the opening 26 minutes at Villa Park.

The home side equalised by half-time though, went ahead thanks to an own goal after 52 minutes and sealed the win with goals to Gabriel Agbonlahor, Emile Heskey and Ashley Young .

Manchester City beat United 2-1 in the first leg of their semi-final yesterday with the second leg at Old Trafford next week.

And in the Premier League, Liverpool's secured three vital points with a 2-nil home win over Tottenham to move to within a point of the top four while Arsenal came from behind to beat Bolton 3-2 in London.