City cruise to win as Villa bow out with whimper

MANCHESTER CITY are just a home win over Reading away from their first FA Cup semi-final since 1981 after a thumping victory over Aston Villa last night.

Gerard Houllier must bear the brunt of the Villa fans’ ire after making eight changes to his latest Premier League starting line-up for a game against talented but tired opponents, with lower-league opposition the prize for the victors. None of this will bother City fans, who can once again think about ending 35 years without a trophy thanks to a fourth-minute opener from Yaya Toure and splendid efforts from Mario Balotelli and David Silva.

As City manager Roberto Mancini has been talking about how fatigued his players are at present, Houllier’s team selection raised more than an eyebrow.

However the Frenchman defended the call, saying his side still had international quality on the pitch.

Asked his thinking behind his eight team changes, Houllier said: “I knew that you would ask that.

“We started the team with Emile Heskey and Gaby Agbonlahor and Nathan Delfouneso, who is an U21 international, so that attack was practically three internationals.

“We have quality and we use it.

“I don’t think Ashley Young or Stuart Downing would have avoided the first goal, which was very unfortunate. After being down to 1-0 it was difficult.”

He added: “We have to acknowledge that we were beaten by a team that is better than ours at the moment.

“I don’t think we had a bad game.

“I admit that we didn’t hurt them enough (but) the score is very flattering for them.”

City defender Pablo Zabaleta was delighted his side managed to keep their cup run going.

“We are very happy,” he said. “We knew before the game we have a great chance in the FA Cup to go back to Wembley after a long time.

“We have great quality in the team. We have players that can score at any time and that is very important in a long season.”

MAN CITY: Hart, Richards (Boyata 83), Boateng, Lescott, Zabaleta, Barry, Vieira, Toure Yaya (Jo 80), Kolarov, Silva, Balotelli (Tevez 60).

ASTON VILLA: Friedel, Herd, Clark, Dunne (Walker 83), Delph, Agbonlahor, Petrov, Bradley (Ashley Young 71), Bannan, Heskey, Delfouneso (Downing 71).

Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear).

nLast night’s Primera Liga results: Getafe 1 Atletico Madrid 1, Osasuna 0 Deportivo La Coruna 0, Real Sociedad 1 Levante 1, Villarreal 1 Hercules 0, Zaragoza 2 Athletic Bilbao 1, Valencia 0 Barcelona 1.