Villa stun Liverpool, meet Arsenal in FA Cup final

CHRISTIAN Benteke and Fabian Delph scored as Aston Villa came from behind to beat Liverpool 2-1 yesterday and book their place in the FA Cup final.

Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring in the semi-final clash, but the Belgian striker hit back just six minutes later, before Delph completed the turnaround in the second-half.

Villa will now face Arsenal in the showpiece on May 30, with Steven Gerrard’s hopes of a fairytale end to his Liverpool career left in tatters.

All the talk had been of whether Gerrard could finish his Liverpool career by lifting the FA Cup next month on his birthday in his final game before joining LA Galaxy, but there will no fairytale end for the long-serving captain, with Villa instead reaching their first FA Cup final for 15 years.

Gerrard and Martin Skrtel both slotted back into the Liverpool team following their respective bans, but the talismanic captain had little effect during the early exchanges as Villa began brightly.

Villa youngster Jack Grealish looked particularly threatening, but it was Charles N’Zogbia who had the first attempt at goal with a 25-yard drive, which was tipped over the crossbar by Simon Mignolet in the 12th minute.

Despite their superiority, Villa struggled to craft goal-scoring opportunities and Liverpool capitalised on hesitant defending to take a 30th-minute lead.

Jores Okore – on for Nathan Baker after he took a blow to the head – and Delph both failed to clear the ball, and Coutinho subsequently burst into the penalty area and coolly slotted past Shay Given after racing on to Raheem Sterling’s through ball.