Aston Villa staged a second half comeback to win 3-2 against Manchester City on Saturday afternoon, with Andreas Weimann scoring the winner off a fantastic ball from Brad Guzan. The win is Villa’s third of the season, lifting the side into ninth place and their spirits even higher.
Weimann, the hero of the match, spoke to reporters after, stating, “It’s a massive win for us obviously. Everyone’s been talking about how we’ve not won at home for awhile but we’ve just beaten someone that’s meant to win the league so it’s a massive win for us.”
While Villa beat Rotherdamn United in the Capital One Cup in August, Villa Park hadn’t seen a home victory since April 29, when Paul Lambert’s side beat Sunderland 6-1. Saturday’s victory may not have been quite so emphatic, but beating a title challenger and Champions League side certainly put a smile on Lambert’s face. The Villa manager stated, “I though we were outstanding. The injury list has been pretty horrendous. We’ve lost two lads who have scored a lot of goals for us...We’re up against one of the best teams in the country, not just for the Barclays Premiership but for Champions League football. So that’s the magnitude of the result.”
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The loss leaves Manchester City, who many felt would be lifting the trophy at the end of the season, in fifth place. However, it’s still early in the season, and manager Manuel Pellegrini did his best to downplay the result: " I think today we played well and I thought we deserved another score in the match but the score . . . does not always reflect what the teams do in the 90 minutes. But in general I was very happy with how the team played today.”
City captain Vincent Kompany wasn’t quite so diplomatic, stating he believed his side to have been the better of the two. Kompany went on to say, “It’s probably the kind of game you play them 10 times you win it 9 times and today just every single mistake we made, we conceded. Even the first goal it wasn’t even a mistake, it was offside. Even then don’t get the good decision. So, I’m not putting blame on anyone but it was really unlucky day.”