Aston Villa eliminate Leicester City from Carabao Cup with late Trezeguet winner

Updated: May 17, 2023, 12:17 am

Aston Villa's Trezeguet scored a dramatic late winner to beat Leicester City 2-1 at Villa Park on Tuesday to reach the finals of the Carabao Cup with a 3-2 aggregate win.

Five-times winners Villa will face either Manchester United or Manchester City, who play in the other semifinal on Wednesday (stream live on ESPN+ at 3 p.m. ET).

Leicester could only manage a 1-1 draw in the first leg at the King Power Stadium and came they came out firing with James Maddison coming close twice in the opening minutes in search of a spot in the Wembley final.

Despite the early chances for Leicester, it was Aston Villa that took the early lead when Jack Grealish set up Matt Targett to smash a shot past Kasper Schmeichel to make it 1-0.

Leicester scored a deserved equaliser after the break with Kelechi Iheanacho smashing home at the back post from a nice Harvey Barnes assist to set up a tense closing 15 minutes to the cup tie.

With the match seemingly headed to a draw in regulation time, Trezeguet popped up at the back post and volleyed home to send the Villa fans into wild celebrations as their team returned to the League Cup final for the first since losing to Manchester United in the 2010 final.

Aston Villa players go wild after scoring a late goal to beat Leicester in the Carabao Cup.
Aston Villa players go wild after scoring a late goal to beat Leicester in the Carabao Cup.
Getty Images

"It shows what character we've got in the team," Villa captain Grealish told Sky Sports. "We were in a sticky patch before Christmas, we couldn't string four passes together, never mind winning, but we have started the new year in great form."

Villa have struggled in the Premier League and sit 16th in the table, two points above the relegation zone, but fought well against their third-placed opponents in both legs of the semi-final.

Smith handed new signing Mbwana Samatta, a Tanzania international forward, his debut but Brendan Rodgers left Leicester's talismanic striker Jamie Vardy on the bench after injury.

Vardy was brought on after 56 minutes but found it hard to get involved and Villa might have doubled their lead but Samatta could not reach Grealish's inviting cross.

Iheanacho levelled when he tucked home Harvey Barnes' low cross after 72 minutes, and the game seemed destined for penalties.

Yet in the third minute of four added on Ahmed Elmohamady launched a dangerous ball into the area and Trezeguet coolly finished to send Villa to Wembley.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.