FA Cup 4th Round: Bournemouth eliminated by Premier League Aston Villa

Aston Villa emerged victorious in this afternoon’s FA Cup 4th round encounter with AFC Bournemouth, winning 2-1 at Villa Park.

New signing Carles Gil opened the scoring on 51 minutes with a spectacular effort from outside the box which flew into the top left corner past a fully stretched Lee Camp.

Austrian winger Andreas Weimann doubled the lead for the Premier League hosts twenty minutes later slotting past Camp after being set up by team mate Hutton.

However, it wasn’t all bad for the 5,800 travelling Cherries fans as their top-goalscorer Callum Wilson wriggled in a late effort, although this wasn’t enough for Eddie Howe’s men to force a replay at the Goldsands.

The scoreline did not reflect the performance as the Cherries dominated the first half with numerous close chances, despite manager Eddie Howe making eight changes to his side which played Leeds on Tuesday night.

Shaun MacDonald, who has not started a league game for Bournemouth this season, came close after just three minutes when his shot was narrowly deflected over the crossbar.

Cherries captain Tommy Elphick then headed wide on ten minutes before MacDonald had another shot cleared off the line eight minutes later.

The closest first-half chance for Bournemouth came from midfielder Eunan O’Kane who’s low shot was just kept out by Villa keeper Shay Given who tipped it round the post.

Unfortunately, the Championship leaders did not match the same performance levels in the second-half as Aston Villa came out all-guns blazing after being dominated in the opening 45 minutes.

Villa appeared a changed team after the midway interval, creating numerous chances before notching a well deserved goal from new signing Carles Gil, who signed last week for a reported £3.2 million from Spanish giants Valencia.

You could see the heads of the Bournemouth players drop as the home team dominated for a further twenty minutes and deservedly doubled their lead when Hutton set up Weimann on 71 minutes making it 2-0.

The Cherries then searched for a way back into the game and wasted numerous chances such as Stanislas who couldn’t quite latch onto an Adam Smith cross from six yards out.

Callum Wilson was introduced late on from the bench, and managed to pull a goal back, but his stoppage time effort came too late for the Cherries, as the game was comfortably shielded to an end by Paul Lambert’s side.

All clouds have a silver lining, and overall the Cherries gave a good account of themselves against Premier League opposition and would have felt on another day they could of won the match.

Having been eliminated from both domestic cup competitions, the priorities for Eddie Howe’s men turns to the league, and the next game against Watford on Friday night.

Liam Grace

January 25, 2022

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