Aston Villa 2-0 Cardiff: Rashford, Asensio link up again as Spaniard scores another brace
Marco Asensio scored another brace to send Aston Villa into their first FA Cup quarter-final in a decade at the expense of Championship side Cardiff City.
Friday was the fourth time Aston Villa and Cardiff met in the FA Cup, with the Welsh side winning two and Villa winning one.
Nobody was reading into that, as the most recent one came in 1948/49.
Villa went into the fixture unbeaten in their last 15 home matches against Cardiff, winning the past seven and were without a defeat since December 1954.
It was Villa’s first FA Cup fifth-round match since 2015, when they knocked out Leicester City and eventually reached the final, losing comprehensively to Arsenal.
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Anwar El Ghazi started against his former club, while 19-year-old defender Dylan Lawlor made his senior debut for Cardiff at Villa Park.
Former Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who is now 34 years old and scored in the 2014 and 2017 FA Cup finals, captained the Bluebirds.
Speaking ahead of the match, Ramsey said: “We know this will be a tough test but hopefully it will be a memorable night.
“The FA Cup means a lot to me, some of the best memories have come from this competition. So why not? Hopefully we can have one of those special evenings.”
It was not a special evening for the Championship side, who could not reach the last eight of the FA Cup for the first time since 2008.
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Marcus Rashford – on loan from Manchester United – enjoyed a positive start, hitting the target with a knuckleball free-kick but did not worry Cardiff goalkeeper Ethan Horvath.
John McGinn was next to hit the target but Horvath was again relatively untested with the Cardiff defence happy to limit the hosts to shots from range.
For all of Villa’s pressure and Rashford’s good start, the England international missed an open goal at the back post in the 34th minute.
It did come at him fast, slightly on the volley and perhaps unexpectedly, but he definitely should have scored. At least he laughed off the miss.
Villa were on top and had plenty of shots but it was goalless at half-time.
Unai Emery’s side were unsurprisingly positive after the break but could not find the opening goal until the 68th minute.
They took the lead through winter loan signing Asensio, scoring in the same goal he bagged a brace against Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday.
His 68th-minute strike had another thing in common with his two against the Blues in that it was assisted by fellow January addition Rashford, who set the Spaniard up thanks to a superb chipped pass from Youri Tielemans.
They are forming quite the partnership in their early days together and after combining superbly last weekend, they were both named in the starting XI for the second time on Friday night and showed everyone why.
It has been a superb start to life at Villa Park for Rashford, who is playing with a smile on his face again and clearly knows he has plenty of doubters to prove wrong, not least Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim.
Real Madrid loanee Asensio doubled his tally and Villa’s lead with ten minutes left, making it successive matches with two second-half goals to win the match for his new team.
Assisted by Ollie Watkins this time, it was another cool and composed finish into the bottom corner.
Emery made a quadruple substitution shortly after his side’s second goal, giving Rashford, Asensio, Watkins and Ian Maatsen a rest and Lucas Digne, Morgan Rogers, Jacob Ramsey and Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba the final eight minutes plus injury time.
It was a third Villa appearance for 18-year-old midfielder Jimoh-Aloba having made his debut in the Carabao Cup against Wycombe Wanderers last September.
Despite some late pressure from the visitors, Villa won the match 2-0 to progress to the sixth round of the FA Cup.
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