Middlesbrough 0-1 Aston Villa
by Roger Domeneghetti
at Riverside Stadium

THE LAST time Villa beat Middlesbrough in the FA Cup, in 1957, they went on to win to lift the trophy.

Although this was not a vintage, cup-winning performance from Unai Emery’s team, it was, thanks to Matty Cash’s wickedly deflected shot, enough to see them progress to the fourth round for the first time since 2016.

Prior to kick-off, it was hard to know what this competition meant to either side, and thus how they would approach the game.

Villa lie second in the Premier League. The title may ultimately be beyond them, but the riches of the Champions League are well within their grasp. So too is an extended run in the Europa Conference League.

Middlesbrough’s league position is not quite as comfortable, yet despite being 12th in the Championship, they lie just four points outside the play-off places.

The riches of the Premier League are tantalisingly close. And, there is the small matter of a League Cup semi-final first leg against Chelsea on Tuesday.

It would have been understandable if either manager had made significant changes, but neither did, leading to an entertaining, end-to-end cup tie.

As might have been expected, the visitors dominated possession but Middlesbrough more than held their own, posing threats through Alex Bangura and Isaiah Jones down the wings and Josh Coburn through the middle

Eventually, however, Villa’s Premier League quality began to show. A well-worked corner routine forced a fingertip save from Tom Glover.

Ezri Konsa crashed a header against the woodwork from the resulting corner. Substitute Nicolo Zaniolo came close, bending a left-foot shot just round the far post.

Then in the 87th minute, Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby linked up from a short corner, the latter laying the ball off to Cash, whose long-range effort spun off the hapless Emmanual Latte Lath into the bottom corner.

It was nothing less than Villa deserved, and leaves them in the hunt for silverware on three fronts.

“We are going to face each competition trying to win,” said Emery.

“The FA Cup is a trophy, and it is prestige. We are going to try to do something, but we take each match as they come.”

“I’m disappointed for them, but I’m not disappointed in them,” said Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick of his players.

“They now know the standard they can live with.”

Bring on Chelsea…