Aston Villa’s Trezeguet struck an overtime winner to send them into the League Cup final with a 2-1 (3-2 aggregate) victory over Leicester City.
Matt Targett had put the hosts ahead in the semi-final second leg at Villa Park after he was teed up by Jack Grealish, with Leicester’s Youri Tielemans hitting the crossbar.
Kelechi Iheanacho equalised from close range in the 72nd minute as he did in the first leg, but Trezeguet finished perfectly in stoppage time at the back of the net to secure a win for Dean Smith.
Aston Villa is are five-times winners who are back in the final after a decade and will face either Manchester City or Manchester United, who meet in their second-leg clash on Wednesday, with City already leading 3-1 on aggregate.
“We were in a sticky patch before Christmas, we couldn’t string four passes together, never mind winning, but we have started the new year in great form and it shows the kind of character we have in the team,” Villa’s skipper Grealish said.
Villa are struggling in the Premier League and sitting 16th in the table with just two points above the relegation zone, but managed to put a good fight against the third-placed Leicester in both legs of the semi-final.
Their new signing Mbwana Samatta, a Tanzania international forward debuted but Brendan Rodgers left Leicester’s talisman striker Jamie Vardy on the bench due to injury.
Villa knocked the visitors on the break to take the lead, with Targett blasting home Grealish’s layoff from an angle in the 12th minute after sustained Leicester pressure.
Anwar El Ghazi’s free kick went narrowly past Villa while James Maddison was repeatedly denied by the impressive Orjan Nyland at the other end.
Leicester pressured after an equaliser when Nyland tipped Tielemans’s long-range strike onto the crossbar. The shot appeared to have struck Marvelous Nakamba’s arm but Tielemans’s appeals for penalty bore no fruits.
Vardy was introduced in the 56th minute but found it hard to change game when Villa nearly doubled their lead but Samatta could not reach Grealish’s ‘super cross’.
Iheanacho equalized when he tucked home Harvey Barnes’ low cross after 72 minutes. At that point the game appeared destined for penalties but in the 3rd minute of the added time, Trezeguet finished the job by sending Villa to Wembley.
