Aston Villa players celebrate
Aston Villa players celebrate (Image: PA)
Aston Villa's courageous under 21s prevailed over Blackpool in the Vertu Trophy at Bloomfield Road on Tuesday night - and in doing so they edged closer to the prospect of a meeting with rivals Birmingham City further down the line in the competition.
Jamal Jimoh-Aloba's late equaliser for Villa, after Elliot Embleton's opening goal for the Tangerines, forced the tie to be decided on penalties. After a gruelling, 38-penalty shoot-out, the young Villans outstayed their senior opponents and claimed an 18-17 victory to set up a last 16 tie with Bradford City, which will be Villa's first home game in the competition.
Remarkably, the young Lions are the only team left in the Trophy who are the under 21s representing a Premier League team. A host of others - including Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal equivalents - were all knocked out in the group stages from which Villa progressed.
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Bradford now await in the New Year, with the game likely to take place on 14 January - although that's yet to be confirmed - and a quarter final place is then up for grabs. The competition remains regionalised until the semi-final stage so Villa under 21s - and Blues - would have to win their next two games in the competition to enter the semi-final hat and set up the chance of a Second City derby.
In the build up to the Blackpool game, under-21 boss Joseph Gombau explained how the youngsters at Villa had been doing more regular training sessions at Bodymoor Heath with the first-team - something which appears to have set them in good stead when coming up against senior teams in this competition.
“I am happy with the performance of the team, in terms of everybody is working hard and the players are training hard," Gombau said before the win. “Also, we are doing a lot of training sessions with the first team – which brings a lot of experience also to our players. I am happy with this. Trying to improve the players and the individuals, and hopefully one day they can play for our first team.”
The full round of 16 fixtures...
Aston Villa U21 v Bradford City
Cheltenham Town v Colchester United
Chesterfield v Rotherham United
Leyton Orient v Stevenage
Lincoln City v Bolton Wanderers
Peterborough United v Walsall
Port Vale v Wrexham
Swindon Town v Birmingham City
How far can the young Villans go? Tell us HERE
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