Carling Cup: Sunderland 0 Aston Villa 0 aet (Villa win on pens)

Oct 28 2009 by Lisa Smith, Birmingham Post

Carling Cup 4th Round: Sunderland 0 Aston Villa 0 aet (Villa win 3-1 on pens)

Big Brad Guzan proved Aston Villa’s penalty king when he single-handedly ensured the club are in the hat for the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup with an incredible hat-trick of penalty saves

And as if his shot-stopping heroics after extra-time were not enough to deny Sunderland, he also denied Kenwyne Jones from the spot in normal time as well as a death-defying save from Kieran Richardson.

Guzan has had to bide his time this season behind Brad Friedel but proved every inch worthy of starting Barclays Premier League games ahead of his fellow American citizen with an immense display over 120 minutes of football.

The keeper and his teflon-coated gloves were in the end the difference between Martin O’Neill’s side and his old adversary Steve Bruce’s Sudnerland with the two sides deadlocked after 90 minutes of entertaining cup football.

Guzan denied Kieran Richardson, Lorik Cana and Jordn Henderson and their penalties in front of the Villa supporters while John Carew, James Collins and Ashley Young slammed theirs home.Even a rare Gabriel Agbonlahor miss did not sour the party.

In the end the 2,500 Villa supporters who had made the long journey up to the North East courtesy of 36 coaches payed for Villa chairman Randy Lerner.It was perhaps money well spent for the club with the fans proving the 12th man – their numbers swollen three-fold by Lerner’s generous gesture.

Guzan’s nocturnal activities had come on a night when he had never put a foot or a hand wrong. Had he not saved from Kenwyne Jones in the 84th minute Villa would never have had the opportunity of penalties and it was Guzan who also denied Kieran Richardson seconds from time when the former Manchester United ace ran at him one on one, the American standing tall as if about to unfurl a stars and stripes from his shoulder.

Villa had had their own chances over 90 minutes but too often had to rely on their tallismanic defenders James Collins and Richard Dunne who were once again magnificent.

Martin O’Neill had made three changes from the side held to a 1-1 draw by Wolves with Nigel Reo-Coker in for Steve Sidwell and starting his first game since his “contretemps” with his manager and Emile Heskey starting ahead of John Carew but it was his decision to play Guzan which in the end proved the match-winner.

Former Birmingham boss Steve Bruce had chosen to leave some of his key players on the bench while Darren Bent was out injured but was soon forced to call on reinforcements as the game progressed.

Villa enjoyed swathes of space at times over the 90 minutes with Emile Heskey looking dangerous and Ashley Young and James Milner causing mayhem on the flanks.

But they could not find their finish while at the other end Dunne and Collins were doing everything to deny Jones and the talented young Jordan Henderson – one tackle bringing claims of a penalty shout before Jones was being denied from the spot after Stilyan Petrov was judged to have handled the ball.

Martin O’Neill was delighted with the result and full of praise for his American man-of-war.

“The players are euphoric in the dressing room and a certain Mr Guzan is very popular tonight. We are delighted for the fans who made the trip.

“We are in the quarter finals now and it is great.”

A dejected Steve Bruce said: “I think we always it would go to penalties with the chances we missed and it wasn’t our night. We actually performed well against an excellent Aston Villa team but in the end I didn’t think we deserved to go through. Their goalkeeper will remember that performance for the rest of his career.”

SUNDERLAND (4-4-2): Gordon, Da Silva, Nosworthy, Turner, McCartney, Henderson, Richardson, Cana, Murphy (Reid, 72,) Campbell (Malbranque, 90) Jones. Substitutes: Fulop, Ferdinand, Healy, Meyler, Malbranque, Reed.

VILLA (4-4-2): Guzan, Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, Warnock, Milner, Petrov (Sidwell, 115) Reo-Coker (Delph, 90), A Young, Agbonlahor, Heskey (Carew, 77). Substitutes: Friedel, L Young, Shorey, Beye.

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffs).

Bookings: Sunderland – Ferdinand, Henderson (both fouls); Villa – Warnock (foul) Petrov (dissent) Collins (dissent).

Attendance: 27,666.

Villa man of the match: Brad Guzan – Immense penalty save in normal time and three incredible saves to deny the hosts in the shoot-out.