High-flying Aston Villa top Liverpool to move on to FA Cup final
Steven Gerrard will not have his fairy-tale ending, but Tim Sherwood may have his fairy-tale start to life at Aston Villa. When fans invaded the pitch in celebration at the end of the quarter-final win over West Bromwich Albion, it seemed a little premature, the outpourings of a club starved of success and desperate for it. Now, two months after Sherwood was appointed as manager, Villa beats Liverpool 2-1 and stands one game from a first FA Cup triumph since 1957 and its first trophy of any kind since 1996.
Since he announced his decision to leave Liverpool in the summer, the possibility of Gerrard winning the tournament in his final game for the club on his 35th birthday has been part of the narrative of the FA Cup. His suspension served, Gerrard returned for the first time since he was sent off 38 seconds after coming off the bench in the league game against Manchester United. The waning of his powers sadly becomes increasingly obvious: his short passing remains relatively slick, but he looked woefully off the pace. Where once he would shape matches to his image (not always for the best), here the game went on around him.
Liverpool's start was not auspicious. The back three returned after a temporary break in the quarter-final replay against Blackburn Rovers, but there was little snap or coherence to their early play. Villa looked sharper, passed the ball better and closed down with more aggression. So obvious was Villa's domination that, midway through the first half, Rodgers switched to a 4-2-3-1 with Gerrard playing off Raheem Sterling.
A couple of minutes later, Villa lost Nathan Baker to injury and that, combined with the change of shape, gave Liverpool an edge. Jonas Okore, who came on for Baker -- himself only playing because of an injury to Ciaran Clarke -- hadn't settled in to the game when Coutinho hurtled by him, running on to Sterling's pass after possession had been regained by Lazar Markovic, and dinked his finish over Shay Given.
At that moment the seemed Villa might rue not making more of its early dominance, when it created only one real chance, Charles Nzogbia's shot from the edge of the box being tipped over by Simon Mignolet. But six minutes after going behind, Villa levelled with Benteke notching his ninth goal in his last seven games from Fabian Delph's cut-back.
Rodgers changed shape again at half-time, adopting to a 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 with Gerrad at the back of midfield, presumably to try to get him on the ball more. There was one long diagonal early on that evoked memories of his past, but the new shape did nothing to protect the right side of Liverpool's central defence, the channel between Martin Skrtel and the right-back Emre Can that Benteke had looked to exploit in the first half.
It was precisely that area that Villa took advantage of nine minutes into the second half. Benteke's astute backheel created space for Jack Grealish, who had had a key role in the build-up to the first goal. The 19-year-old delayed his pass just long enough and slipped in Delph to give Villa the lead. It was another fine moment in a classy performance from Grealish, whose great, great grandfather, Billy Garraty, won the FA Cup with Villa in 1905.
The transformation in Villa since Sherwood's arrival has been remarkable. Moribund under Paul Lambert, it has become a lively side, good to watch, full of brio and endeavor. Whatever tactical questions were raised about Sherwood at Tottenham, even there he showed a capacity to energize a team. This was a Villa without four key players through injury and suspension, but it played with pace and wit in forward areas and with discipline and courage at the back.
Liverpool, when the pressure was on, faded again. After the extraordinary run that lasted from December to March, its season is crumbling, morale seemingly sapped by the affair of Sterling's contract, and fatigue setting in. When it won a free-kick 25 yards out with 10 minutes to go, it should have been a golden chance; instead Gerrard's kick was so poorly hit it barely reached Shay Given.
Gerrard wasn't the only problem, not by any means. There was a general lack of drive. Sterling looks out of sorts. The want of a high-class striker is obvious; Mario Balotelli came on at half-time and grouched around as ineffectively as ever. But the way the build-up shaped the expectation, Gerrard was most obvious problem.
Briefly, with four minutes to go, there was a glimmer of the great Gerrard as he met a Philippe Coutinho corner with a header that, in its shape, recalled the first Liverpool goal in Istanbul 10 years ago: this time, though, Kieran Richardson was there to head the ball away deny what many had thought was Gerrard's manifest destiny.
