Aston Villa - Cardiff FA Cup review

Overview

Aston Villa's 4-match unbeaten streak in all competitions was ended after a 1-4 defeat at Crystal Palace. This defeat made Aston Villa's ambition to qualify for the Champions League next season even more difficult.

At this time, coach Unai Emery's team needs to temporarily put the Premier League aside to focus on the FA Cup arena. They will have a match against Cardiff - a team competing in the Championship.

Cardiff are currently 19th out of 24 in the Championship and their aim is to stay in the league. Cardiff have won two, drawn two and lost one of their last five games. This is a pretty good form for a team in the bottom half of the table like Cardiff. However, they are still far behind in every aspect when compared to Villa.

It is not difficult to see the big difference between Aston Villa and Cardiff. In addition, Unai Emery's team also plays at Villa Park. This season, Aston Villa have only lost 2 home matches, with the remaining 10 wins and 8 draws.

Welcoming a not-so-high-rated opponent like Cardiff is a good opportunity for Aston Villa to express their anger after the midweek loss. If there are no surprises, Emery's side will have a big win against the Championship side.

Aston Villa and Cardiff will face each other for the first time since April 2018. Villa won 1-0 in that match and a similar score could appear later.

Notably, Aston Villa have won the FA Cup 7 times in the past.

Personnel situation

With the goal of saving energy for the important match against Club Brugge in the Champions League, Aston Villa coach Emery is expected to rotate the squad.

On the other side of the front line, difficulties are piling up for the away team Cardiff. They are expected to be without up to six players for this game.

Expected lineup:

Aston Villa: Olsen, Garcia, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen, McGinn, Tielemans, Rogers, Asensio, Rashford, Malen.

Cardiff: Horvath, Ng, Goutas, Fish, Rinomhota, Mannsverk, Ramsey, O'Dowda, El Ghazi, Robinson, Salech.