Aston Villa reach FA Cup semi finals: Can they go all the way?

National World - LocalTV

Aston Villa’s season just keeps getting better. Their FA Cup triumph has secured a spot in the semi-finals, adding to the excitement surrounding Unai Emery’s side. We spoke with Charlie Haffenden of BirminghamWorld about what this achievement means for the club. With Villa also battling for a top-four Premier League finish and making waves in Europe, their campaign is shaping up to be one of the most thrilling in years.

Transcript

00:00Now, Aston Villa's season just keeps getting better. Their FA Cup triumph has secured a

00:08spot in the semi-finals, adding to the excitement surrounding Unai Emery's side. I spoke with

00:14Charlie Haffenden of Birmingham World about what this achievement means for the club,

00:19with Villa also battling for a top-four finish in the Premier League and making waves in

00:23Europe. Their campaign is shaping up to be one of the most thrilling in years. The momentum

00:28is building and as they push for silverware on multiple fronts, Villa fans have every

00:33reason to dream of a truly historic campaign.

00:37Charlie, let's start and look at Aston Villa in terms of their situation. I mean, they've

00:44reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, a long time coming as well in the last few seasons

00:49they've sort of struggled to get to the latter stages. Where do you see this sort of priority

00:57Before we go into the priorities with the Champions League as well, let's just look

01:02at the game. Obviously, 3-0 away from home at Preston, a favourable draw as we mentioned.

01:07They obviously got that favourable draw in the Champions League as well. Things are just

01:11sort of piecing together at the right time, it seems. But in terms of the game, I mean,

01:16they had a job to do away from home and they seem to get it done.

01:19Yeah, they absolutely did. The first half away at Deepdale was a little bit tentative

01:25at times and Preston actually probably looked the more likely team to score, throwing balls

01:28into the box, long throws and quite awkward crosses into the area. Martinez having to

01:33deal with a few. But then second half, completely different story. Marcus Rashford scoring his

01:37first two goals for the club. The first one, a proper striker's finish as he poked home

01:41from a Lugardine cross. Second one was a penalty, but he still got to step up and take it and

01:45he did it in style. He didn't even look at the ball once. He just stared down the goalkeeper's

01:49eyes and then made sure he made the first move before slotting it home. And then the

01:53goal for Jacob Ramsey as well. What a goal it was, turning away from his defender, running

01:5725 or 30 yards before firing to that far bottom left-hand corner. The Villa fans in attendance,

02:02thousands of them in the Bill Shankly cop, absolutely loving life. And rightly so, they're

02:07off to Wembley for the first time in five years.

02:09Yeah, and they face Crystal Palace in the next round. I mean, a Wembley semi-final's

02:16great. A chance to get to an FA Cup final for Unai Emery would be unbelievable with

02:20this Villa group. They haven't beaten Palace at all this season. The last few times they've

02:26met as well, they've sort of struggled against them. But you'd probably argue it's a favourable

02:30one in terms of Forest, the Manchester City and the other half as well. If they are to

02:35get to the final, do you feel there's nothing to lose? Unai Emery, a real chance at silverware

02:40and this could be the perfect opening for it.

02:44Yeah, I think obviously Palace, the Villa fans, will be worried about the previous meetings.

02:48It's been pretty terrible against them in recent times, especially last season as well.

02:52The end of five-nil defeat at Solhurst Park. I know everything was wrapped up with the

02:55Champions League at that point, so it didn't really matter, but it was still a painful

02:58one nonetheless. And of course, that kind of carried over into this season with more

03:01pain against Palace. But as you say, Nottingham Forest doing an incredible job in the Premier

03:07League this season under Nuno Espirito Santo. Manchester City, not quite the same city of

03:11old, but still so, so powerful. I think it's something ridiculous like seven or eight semi-finals

03:17in a row in the FA Cup for them. So, they're very good in this competition. Villa avoiding

03:22both of those and getting Palace is probably the best case scenario. And I think Emery

03:25will be looking at that one confidently. Anything can happen at Wembley. Of course, neutral

03:30turf, not having to go to Solhurst Park again is a bonus. And yeah, Villa confident, I think

03:35with all their fan base and their support, can hopefully do one over Palace.

03:39And Marcus Rashford, I mean, you know, he's sort of come into his own at Villa way more

03:44confident, it seems, in the last few games. And he's linked up fantastically with Marco

03:49Senna as well. That January window is looking like it's proving to possibly be the difference.

03:54I mean, in terms of Rashford, how important is it that they maybe look to make his deal

03:59permanent? Because if he can get back to the Rashford of, you know, just four or five years

04:04ago, maybe even less at times, he's one of the best players in the league. And, you know,

04:09that is a very big potential to take Villa forward.

04:14Absolutely. And we've seen how much pace he's still got. 27 years of age, he's in his prime,

04:19playing so, so well on that left hand side, but also through the centre. Olly Watkins

04:23didn't start against Preston. He was actually fit enough to start, but Emery decided to

04:27go for Rashford instead. He got his first two goals. Before that, as you kind of alluded

04:31to, he got four assists for Marco Asensio in the eight games before that. So incredible

04:36form so far. Looks like he's returning to his former self. And I think that 40 million

04:40pound buy option is definitely a possibility this summer.

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