Aston Villa welcomed Wolverhampton Wanderers at Villa Park earlier tonight as they focussed on securing a victory in the West Midlands derby. Both teams fought tooth and nail in the first 45 minutes but struggled to find the cutting edge in the final third as they went into the half-time break with a goalless scoreline.
Danny Ings gave the home team the lead just three minutes into the second half when he scored with a good header. John McGinn found the back of the net in the 68th minute with a deflected effort to put Aston Villa in a commanding position in the game. Romain Saiss got a goal back for Wolves in the 80th minute before Conor Coady scored a dramatic equaliser from close range just four minutes later. Ruben Neves got lucky and ended up scoring from a late deflected free-kick as the match finished 3-2 with Dean Smith’s men suffering a disappointing derby defeat at home.
Let’s take a look at how each Aston Villa player performed during the match against Wolves.
GK: Emiliano Martinez – 5.5/10
Martinez made just one save during the game and won’t be pleased after conceding three goals in the second half.
CB: Ezri Konsa – 7/10
Konsa did his fair share of defending but all of his good defensive work was not enough for his team to get anything from this game.
CB: Axel Tuanzebe – 5.5/10
He cleared his lines when needed but looked far from convincing at the back, especially in the second half.
CB: Tyrone Mings – 6/10
The English defender made multiple clearances during the 90 minutes but couldn’t stop his teammates from having a defensive meltdown late in the game.
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RM: Matty Cash – 7/10
Cash created a couple of inviting openings for his teammates to score and was quite lively going forward. Defensively, he was solid as well throughout his time on the pitch.
CM: John McGinn – 9/10
He did his fair share of defending at the back and was a constant menace in the final third. McGinn orchestrated plenty of chances for others around him and made a few driving runs with the ball in the Wolves half. He was fortunate to score with his deflected attempt.
CM: Douglas Luiz – 7/10
The Brazilian got stuck in with a couple of crunching tackles and completed two good dribbles going forward.
CM: Emiliano Buendia – 6.5/10
He had a couple of shot attempts but struggled to create any opportunities for his teammates to score.
LM: Matt Targett – 6/10
The English full-back made one good chance during the game but will be devastated after the ball deflected off him into his own net deep in injury-time which ended up costing Villa the result.
ST: Ollie Watkins – 7/10
Watkins didn’t get too many chances to score but was quite lively in the opponent’s half.
ST: Danny Ings – 7/10
The ex-Liverpool forward scored the opening goal with a good header early in the second half. However, he wasted a couple of decent chances to get another goal.
Substitutes:
CM: Marvelous Nakamba – 6/10
Nakamba added some energy to Dean Smith‘s midfield.
CM: Jacob Ramsey – 5.5/10
Ramsey struggled to get a foothold in the game.
RM: Ashley Young – 5.5/10
He offered very little after coming off the bench.
