Match report: Aston Villa 2-0 Wolves
Premier League: Aston Villa, whose unlikely surge into contention for Champions League qualification was built on their imperious record in front of their own supporters, regained that homely feeling and with it fourth place in the Premier League after Unai Emery recorded his first win over Wolves in seven attempts. Words: Peter Lansley at Villa Park.
Ezri Konsa: In an interview with Sky Sports, the Aston Villa and England defender is asked if he meant to score with his “shot” on goal. You probably don’t need me to tell you his reply, but I will anyway.
“Yeah, I did … yeah, definitely,” he says, with a laugh. “It’s just one of those things, whether it was a cross or I meant it, it went in so it’s my goal and I’m really pleased.”
A quick recap: Having been bossed by their visitors for the opening 25 minutes, Villa finally got a foothold in the game and opened the scoring with a fine strike from Moussa Diaby after Wolves fell asleep at a set-piece. Ezri Konsa doubled Villa’s lead with a cross that drifted inside the far post to give Villa a fairly comfortable win in the end.
Brentford v Manchester United … live! The Bees host Mancherster United in the last of today’s eight Premier League games and you can follow the action with Rob Smyth.
Full time: Aston Villa 2-0 Wolves
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeeep! Paul Tierney signals the end of a game that Aston Villa have won comfortably courtesy of goals from Moussa Diaby and a perfectly executed act of improvisational genius fluke from Ezri Konsa. Unai Emery gets a win over Wolves in his seventh attempt as a manager and his side go fourth in the table, three points ahead of Spurs having played on game more.
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90+9 min: Nathan Fraser shoots into the side-netting from a tight angle.
90+ 7 min: Wolves keep plugging away to little or no effect, although Matt Doherty wins a corner by putting the ball out off Pau Torres. Villa substitution: Kaine Kessler-Hayden on for his premier League debut. Leon Bailey makes way. During the break in play, Lucas Digne is booked for something-or-other, presumably dissent. Nothing comes from the Wolves corner.
90+4 min: Fraser fouls Konsa in the Villa penalty area and concedes a free-kick.
90+2 min: Between all the substitutions and the IT repairs carried out on one of the official’s comms, we’ll have a minimum of nine minutes of added time.
90+1 min: Toti fouls Leon Bailey and Villa have a free-kick in a good position, about 30 yards from the Wolves goal. Douglas Luiz clips the ball towards the far post, where it’s intercepted before it can reach Nicolo Zaniolo.
90 min: Villa substitution: Tim Iroegbunam on for Moussa Diaby
87 min: Doherty almost has an ijmmediate impact, heading just over the bar after connecting with a cross.
85 min: Wolves triple substitution: Matt Doherty, Nathan Fraser and Boubacar Traore on for Nelson Semedo, Joao Gomes and Leon Chiwome.
84 min: Max Kilman and Jhon Duran are both booked for some mutual grappling, pulling and dragging as they tussled for the ball. It was something and nothing and the yellow cards seem excessive.
82 min: Santiago Bueno clips a cross towards the left side of the Villa penalty area. Emi Martinez is quick off his line to leap and claim the ball.
81 min: Wolves substitute Tawanda Chirawa is booked for preventing Ezri Konsa from taking a quick free-kick after he’d fouled the Villa defender.
79 min: Douglas Luiz whips a corner towards the near post, where the ball is out out for another set-piece, Villa fourth in quick succession. On this occasion, Luiz sends the ball straight into the gloves of Jose Sa.
78 min: Referee’s assistant Steve Meredith has been recharged and switched back on, so play resumes.
74 min: Jhon Duran runs on to a speculative punt into space from deep, gets control of the ball and shoots wide of the far post with what might, on second view, have been an errant low cross in the general direction of Moussa Diaby. There’s a break in play as one of the linesmen gets the battery pack on his comms thingummy replaced.
73 min: Douglas Luiz whips a free-kick from wide on the left into the Wolves penalty area. Jose Sa comes to claim the ball off the head of his teammate, Mario Lemina.
70 min: Wolves substitution: Tawanda Chirawa on for his third Premier League appearance. Tommy Doyle makes way.
70 min: Kilman plays a long diagonal towards Semedo, who runs into Lucas Digne and is robbed of the ball. Wolves substitution from just before the goal: Hugo Bueno on for Rayan Ait-Nouri.
67 min: Zaniolo is foiled by Sa again, this time as he tried to shoot from a tight angle. Wolves are on the ropes here.
67 min: Jose Sa saves well from Zaniolo after the Italian substitute had thre ball squared his way by Diaby
GOAL! Aston Villa 2-0 Wolves (Konsa 65)
Villa double their lead! Ezri Konsa takes the plaudits as his cross from the right to Dhuran drops just inside the far post before the substitute can get a touch on it. It’s a fluke but he’ll claim otherwise and nobody can prove him wrong!
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64 min: Villa double-substitution: Nicolo Zaniolo and Lucas Digne on for Morgan Rogers and Alex Moreno.
61 min: Leon Chiwoma does well to get in behind Diego Carlos with the ball at his feet but the Villa centre-half is quick to recover the ball with a sliding challenge on the 18-year-old Premier League debutant.
59 min: Former Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel is a guest at today’s game and he gets a warm round of applause as his face is shown on the big screen. He looks great, although I wouldn’t have recognised him if you’d given me 10,000 guesses. His once long, lank, black hair is now short and grey.
56 min: Semedo and Sarabia combine down the right and the former’s attempted cross is blocked and put out for a corner by Pau Torres. As the ball is swung into the penalty area, Toti Gomes is penalised for a foul on Emi Martinez.
53 min: The sun having set, there’s a short break in play so that Villa’s Muslim goalscorer Moussa Diaby can break his Ramadan fast. He adjourns to the touchline to scoff a banana and glug back an energy drink before play resumes.
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52 min: Doyle and Sarabia stand over the ball and it’s the latter who curls his effort over the bar from about a foot outside the penalty area.
50 min: It’s a Wolves free-kick just in front of the Villa penalty area after Sarabia is pushed off the ball while advancing towards goal.
48 min: Rayan Ait-Nouri runs into space on the edge of the Villa box only to be robbed of possession by Tielemans. He sends Bailey on his way down the right and he cuts inside before sending his shot high over the cross-bar. He should have at least hit the target from there.
46 min: Villa free-kick, wide on the right. Douglas Luiz and Leon Bailey appear to get their wires crossed in its execution but Bailey eventually curls a cross towards the far post. Diego Carlos stretches to send a header wide as the flag goes up for offside.
Second half: Aston Villa 1-0 Wolves
46 min: The game restarts, with John Dhuran on for Ollie Watkins, who one presumes is injured.
Half-time: Aston Villa 1-0 Wolves
Peep! Paul Tierney draws the first half to a close and Villa go in for their half-time brew with a one-goal lead. It took them a while to get going as Wolves dominated the game for 25 minutes. But after Rayan Ait-Nouri had missed a glorious opportunity to put the visitors ahead, Villa finally got their act together and scored through Moussa Diaby.
45+1 min: Ezra Konsa advances towards the edge of the Wolves box and tries to curl the ball inside the far post, only to shank it horribly wide. The cameras cut to Tyrone Mings and John McGinn, who are sitting side-by-side in the stand. They are in stitches laughing at Konsa’s terrible shot.
44 min: Semedo completely miscontrols the ball as it’s pinged his way out by the right touchline by Tommy Doyle. It’s a throw-in for Villa and a loud ironic cheer for the Wolves winger. from the Villa fans
42 min: Having got a foothold in the game and taken the lead not long before half-time, Villa are now playing with a conspicuous spring in their step.
40 min: That was a fine goal, straight from the training ground and assisted in no small part that the Wolves defence completely switched off and appeared to be asleep. Jose Sa could probably have done better too but he might have been unsighted when the ball fell to Diaby.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Wolves (Diaby 36)
Villa lead! Douglas Luiz stands over a free-kick about 35 yards from the Wolves goal. He clips the ball out to Bailey on the left, and he squares it. It’s only half-cleared as far as Moussa Diaby on the edge of the area and he picks his spot before arrowing a shot past Sa.
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33 min: Good defending from Alex Moreno, who does well to get back and rob Semedo of possession with an excellent tackle when it looked like the Wolves wing-back had beaten him for pace down the left. Moments previously, Pau Torres had got on the end of a Luiz dink into the Wolves box and skimmed a header into the arms of Jose Sa from close range.
31 min: Somebody on the Villa bench seems to have flicked a switch, as the home side have finally sparked into life. They win their first corner of the game and it’s taken by Leon Bailey. He plays it short, receives the return pass and whips the ball into the box. Wolves clear.
30 min: Youri Tielemans picks up a needless booking for clipping the heels of Rayan Ait-Nouri.
27 min: Tielemans plays Watkins in behind the Wolves backline with a wonderfully weighted pass through the middle. The Villa striker takes a superflous touch that takes him wide of the target and narrows his angle. He clips the ball wide instead of over Jose Sa and into the back of the net. Better from Villa but you’d have expected Watkins to score there.
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25 min: Alex Moreno is played in behind his marker with a pass down the left by Morgan Rogers and he tries to send a cross into the Wolves penalty area. His delivery is dreadful and the ball drifts well wide.
23 min: The atmosphere at Villa Park is very subdued and it’s no great surprise as Wolves remain in the ascendency. It’s quite an effort from Gary O’Neil’s side, considering they are missing their entire first choice front three. One suspects any one of the absentees would have scored the chance missed a few minutes ago by Rayan Ait-Nouri.
21 min: Wolves free-kick. Doyle plays it diagonally from deep, trying to pick out Lemina, who loses his balance and is unable to prevent the ball from going out for a throw-in.
18 min: Wolves continue to turn the screw, looking like the home team. Semedo gets the better of Morgan Rogers out on the right wing and tries to pick out Ait-Nouri. Aston Villa clear the cross, break upfield and Sarabia is booked for impeding Rogers’ progress by dragging out of the tail of his shirt at the halfway line. He almost ripped it off the Villa midfielder’s back!
15 min: Pablo Sarabia gets on the ball from Wolves out by the right touchline and plays it back inside to Santiago Bueno. His cross is unwittingly flicked on towards the far post by a Villa defender and drops perfectly for Rayan Ait-Nouri.
With all the time in the world to pick his spot and score from six or seven yards out, the Wolves wing-back shoots straight at Martinez. That’s a shocking miss and it’s small wonder he has his head in his hands.
13 min: Wolves are taking the game to Villa in these early stages and have started strongly.
12 min: Lemina tries a speculative shot from distance that doesn’t trouble Martinez in the slightest. There was no power behind the Gabon international’s effort.
9 min: VIlla have the ball in the Wolves net but it doesn’t count. Douglas Luiz played an offside Watkins in behind with a weighted pass and the striker’s shot is saved by Jose Sa. Luiz “scores” on the follow up but his effort is ruled out for the offside in the build-up.
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8 min: Mario Lemina gets around Morgan Rogers down b y the byline and pulls the ball back into the Villa penalty area. Goal-kick – he was unable to prevent the ball from going out of play.
6 min: Villa free-kick, wide on the right. Douglas Luiz and Leon Bailey stand over it as the Wolves defence line up along the edge of their penalty area. Leon Bailey sends the ball into the mixer, but it’s cleared.
5 min: Wolves corner. A headed clearance from Ollie Watkins drops kindly for Tommy Doyle on the edge of the Villa penalty area. He tries his luck against the unsighted Martinez but sends his effort well wide.
4 min: Tommy Doyle plays the ball wide to Semedo with a flick of his right foot. The Newcastle wing-back cuts inside and has a shot blocked.
2 min: With his proud parents and four younger brothers looking on from the stands, Leon Chiwome loiters in the Villa box, trying to get on the end of a cross from the right. It’s too close to Emi Martinez, who plucks the ball from the sky.
2 min: Nelson Semedo gets on the ball, canters up the right touchline and is forced backwards by Alex Moreno.
Aston Villa v Wolves is go ...
1 min: Wolves get the ball rolling and immediately play it out to the right touchline, coughing up possession to their hosts.
Not long now: Led by Paul Tierney and his team of match officials, both sets of players make their way out on to the pitch at Villa Park, their arrival heralded by a pyrotechnics display. It’s a perfect Spring evening for a game of football as we approach the closing stages of a day full of goals, gaffes and controversy in the Premier League.
Spurs beat Luton Town: Tottenham’s late come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Luton courtesy of an own goal from Issa Kaboure and Heung-min Son’s winner means Ange Postecoglou’s side have leapfrogged Aston Villa into fourth place in the Premier League table.
Both sides have played the same number of games, have the same number of points and the same goal difference. Ahead of Villa’s game against Wolves, Tottenham are in fourth place on goals scored, having bagged one more than Villa. It’s tight!
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Those teams: Unai Emery makes two changes to the side that drew at West Ham last time out. Diego Carlos is in for Clement Lenglet in the heart of their defence, while Moussa Diaby comes into the side in place of Jhon Duran.
Wolves make one change to the team that was knockled out of the FA Cup by Coventry City. Leon Chiwome, 18, will play up front on his Premier League debut, coming in for Nathan Fraser. He scored the winner for England U-18s against the Netherlands in midweek.
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Tonight's match officials
Referee: Paul Tierney.
Assistants: Scott Ledger and Steve Meredith.
Fourth official: Matt Donohue.
VAR: Peter Bankes.
Assistant VAR: Nick Greenhalgh.
Aston Villa v Wolves line-ups
Aston Villa: Martinez, Konsa, Diego Carlos, Torres, Alex Moreno, Bailey, Tielemans, Douglas Luiz, Rogers, Diaby, Watkins.
Subs: Digne, Chambers, Lenglet, Zaniolo, Duran, Olsen, Kesler-Hayden, Iroegbunam, Kellyman.
Wolves: Jose Sa, Santiago Bueno, Kilman, Gomes, Nelson Semedo, Joao Gomes, Doyle, Ait Nouri, Sarabia, Mario Lemina, Chiwome.
Subs: Holman, Doherty, Traore, Noha Lemina, Hugo Bueno, Bentley, Barnett, Chirewa, Fraser.
Early team news
Villa are without full-back Matty Cash, who is out injured, while their influential midfielder John McGinn sits out the second game of a three-match ban following his shocking tackle on Destiny Odogie during his side’s defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur. Boubacar Kamara, Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia all remain out.
For Wolves, Hwang Hee-chan and Pedro Neto are both out with hamstring injuries, while the fitness of Craig Dawson and Jean-Ricner Bellegard is also in doubt. Matheus Cunha is reported to have recovered from a thigh injury and could be available for selection.
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Premier League: Aston Villa v Wolves
Without a win in two Premier League games, one of which was a hiding at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa remain in fourth place, three points ahead of a Tottenham Hotspur side that is currently drawing with Luton Town and will have a game in hand by close of play in today’s Premier League schedule.
They welcome Wolves to Villa Park on a day when Unai Emery will be hoping to mastermind victory against the team from Molineux for the first time in seven attempts. With trips to Arsenal and Manchester City to come in the first two weeks in April, it is a conspicuous blot on the Spaniard’s copybook that he will be eager to erase.
Wolves come into this game having had two weeks to stew on the late, late smash-and-grab inflicted upon them by Coventry City in the FA Cup quarter-final. Unbeaten against Villa in six matches, they will be confident of extending that run in what has been an excellent season under Gary O’Neil. Kick-off at Villa Park is at 5.30pm (GMT).
