Key events
29 min: A drweadful pass from Malick Thiaw gifts possession to Villa on the edge of the final third. Barkley spreads the ball wide to Abraham, who shoots tamely into the arms of Ramsdale.
28 min: Lucas Digne sends a decent cross into the Newcastle penalty area from the left and Leon Bailey ducks to send a header well wide of the far post from the penalty spot.
26 min: Newcastle break upfield but a promising attack breaks down when Hall fails to pick out a promising Osula run and sends his pass astray.
24 min: Dan Burn plays a hopeful ball from deep in the direction of Osula, who loses his footing. Villa get the ball back and Malick Thiaw is booked for hauling Morgan Rogers to the ground as he tries to give him the slip.
22 min: Murphy and Trippier combine down the right and the Newcastle captain tries to pick out Osula with a cross. It’s intercepted. Seconds later, Lewis Hall goes down under a challenge from Lindelof in the Villa penalty area but the appeals for a spot-kick are fairly half-hearted.
21 min: Barnes tries to play Osula in behind with a seven-iron from deep but Victor Lindelof is alert to the danger and intercepts the pass.
19 min: Replays show that finish from Abraham was excellent. He chested down the free-kick delivery from Douglas Luiz and lifted the ball over the oncoming Ramsdale on the half volley. A drop goal, if you will. He was offside, mind … but them’s the breaks.
17 min: Rogers drives forward fand works the ball wide to Bailey via Ross Barkley. He pulls it back to Abraham, whose shot is blocked by Malick Thiaw. That’s excellent attacking play from hosts.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle United (Abraham 14)
Table of Contents
Villa lead! With Newcastle’s players expecting Morgan Rogers to shoot from distance, Douglas Luiz chipped the free-kick over the ball and into the space behind it. Anticpating the delivery, Tammy Abraham chested down the ball and fired a volley past Aaron Ramsdale. I think he was at least a yard offside but there’s no VAR so the goal stands.
12 min: There’s not a great doeal of interest to report at the moment, with play congested in the middle third of the pitch and both sides appearing to be very evenly matched. Thiaw is penalised for barging ino Ross Barkley, who is making his first start for Villa in 13 months.
10 min: Newcastle are pressing hard from the front, trying to win the ball high up the pitch. Getting a rare start for Newcastle, William Osula is at the tip of the spear chasing everything.
8 min: Harvey Barnes tries his luck with a low drive from a long way out. He doesn’t catch the ball properly and it skids well wide of the upright.
7 min: Tripppier sends a cross into the Villa penalty area and Woltemade leaps to flick it on. Harvey Barnes keeps it in play but is unable to do much on the creative front. Villa clear their lines.
5 min: Morgan Rogers canters down the left wing for Villa, who work the ball across to Leon Bailey the right side of the Newcastle penalty area. He cuts inside but his shot is blocked.
4 min: On the occasion of his 24th birthday, Nick Woltemade robs Douglas Luiz of possession and is immediately fouled by the Brazilian. Yellow card.
3 min: Bizot boots the ball long and Tammy Abraham is penalised for a foul on Harvey Barnes as they battle for possession.
2 min: Villa surge forward and Leon Bailey chases an apparently lost cause to the byline before hooking the ball towards the goal from an angle that couldn’t be tighter. Aaron Ramsdale catches it unopposed at his near post.
Aston Villa v Newcastle United is go …
1 min: Tammy Abraham gets the ball rolling, playing it a few yards backwards to Amadou Onana. Within seconds it finds its way to the feet of Villa goalkeeper Marco Bizot.
Not long now: Kieran Trippier and Lucas Digne skipper the sides, which are led out on to the Villa Park pitch by referee Chris Kavanagh and his team of match officials soundtracked by Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train. Kick-off is just a couple of minutes away.
Fun fact: When Bruno Guimaraes doesn’t start, Newcastle tend not to win. They have only won of the 13 matches which the Brazilian midfielder has not started since his full debut in March 2022, losing six and drawing six. Today they were rocked by the news that he will miss at least eight matches with a hamstring injury.
Unai Emery: “Alysson has a huge potential”
Villa’s head coach was asked about Alysson, the 19-year-old winger the club signed from the Brazilian side Gremio during the January transfer window. “He is a winger, left foot, plays normally in the right side,” he told reporters. “He has qualities or skills like a Leon Bailey. He has a huge potential. His adaptation has been progressing better but he needed time and he’s still needing time to adapt to us and get his best performances.” The young Brazilian is not included in Villa’s matchday squad for tonight’s game.
Eddie Howe: “Our attitude is to win”
“It has helped the feeling and mood at the training ground,” said Newcastle’s head coach of the FA Cup. “It is amazing that it can change the perspective of everyone. I get asked a lot about the FA Cup. Our attitude is to win. It’s a competition we want to win and go as far as we can.
“We would love to have a cup run, our attitude won’t change. We want to try and win the next game and that is Aston Villa. It is a tough draw, a competition we want to do well in and we want to go as far as we can.”
Those teams: Unai Emery makes seven changes to the team that started against Brighton in midweek. Marco Bizot, Pau Torres, Victor Lindelof, Lucas Digne, Ross Barkley, Leon Bailey and Tammy Abraham all start.
Newcastle make six changes to the side that started against Tottenham, as Eddie Howe brings in Aaron Ramsdale, Lewis Hall, Sandro Tonali, Jacob Murphy, Nick Woltemade and William Osula.
Aston Villa v Newcastle United line-ups
Aston Villa: Bizot, Bogarde, Lindelof, Torres, Digne, Luiz, Onana, Rogers, Barkley, Bailey, Abraham.
Subs: Martinez, Consa, Mings, Watkins, Garcia, Buendia, Sancho, Maatsen, Cone
Newcastle United: Ramsdale, Trippier, Thiaw, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Ramsey, Murphy, Woltemade, Barnes, Osula.
Subs: Pope, Ruddy, Gordon, Elanga, Willock, A.Murphy, Shahar, Seung-soo, Neave.
Today’s match officials
NB VAR is not being used in the fourth round of this season’s FA Cup.
Early team news
Aston Villa quartet Youri Tielemans, John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara and Andres Garcia are all sidelined with injuries, but recent signing Alysson ought to feature today after the 19-year-old winger recovered from a knee problem. Absent from Villa’s midweek win over Brighton, Matty Cash is also expected to miss today’s game.
Newcastle fans are reeling from the news that Bruno Guimaraes will miss the next eight to 10 games with a hamstring injury, while Joelinton, Tino Livramento, Fabian Schar and Emil Krafth all remain sidelined. Lewis Miley is receiving daily scans on a dead leg and is unlikely to be risked here, given the intensity of Newcastle’s looming schedule.
Having declined to select either of his centre-forwards Yoane Wissa or Nick Woltemade to start against Spurs on Tuesday in a gamble that paid off in fine style, it will be interesting to see how Eddie Howe approaches tonight’s game. With four matches and one flight to and from Azerbaijan scheduled for the next 10 days, Eddie Howe could be forgiven for placing this particular contest at the bottom of his list of priorities.
FA Cup fourth round: Aston Villa v Newcastle
Newcastle travel to Villa Park for the second of four consecutive matches on the road for Eddie Howe’s side. Their odyssey began in fine style with a midweek victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League that cost Thomas Frank his job and now they meet Villa in FA Cup for the seventh time since 16 February, 1895.
Villa won 7-1 on that occasion but are unlikely to enjoy such a stroll in a match that history suggest could be highly significant. In five of the previous six seasons these two teams have met in the FA Cup, it has either been in the final (twice) or the the team that won has gone on to reach the final.
Newcastle haven’t won this competition since lifting the FA Cup for the sixth time in 1955, while Villa won the most recent of their seven FA Cups two years later in 1957. For both of them, it’s been a while. Kick-off at Villa Park is at 5.45 (GMT) but we’ll have team news and build-up in the meantime.
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