Aston Villa vs West Bromwich Albion Preview

March 7, 2015
By: Deke Hardman

FA-cup

Saturday’s FA Cup action concludes at Villa Park where Aston Villa host West Bromwich Albion in the second of the four quarter finals.

The two sides met at the same venue just four days ago, with the hosts winning out courtesy of an injury-time penalty from Christian Benteke after Saido Berahino had cancelled out Gabriel Agbonlahor’s twenty-second minute opener.

That result followed two straight defeats for Tim Sherwood’s men, while in the cup they booked their place in the last eight by beating Leicester City having previously knocked out Championship duo Blackpool and Bournemouth.

Captain Ron Vlaar could return after recovering from a calf problem though fellow defender Alan Hutton is suspended after picking up his tenth booking of the season midweek and Aly Cissokho, Kieran Richardson, Chris Herd, Nathan Baker, Philippe Senderos and Libor Kozak are all injured.

Benteke is favourite to open the scoring at 6.5 (11/2) with a variety of firms, while Agbonlahor is a 9.0 (8/1) shot with William Hill.

The home win is widely available at 2.8 (9/5) with a number of bookmakers, with the visitors as highly priced as the 2.9 (19/10) on offer from several firms. The draw is 3.2 (11/5) with Bet Victor.

The Baggies, who saw their five game unbeaten run ended by their Midlands rivals on Tuesday evening, thumped West Ham United 4-0 in the fifth round, after eliminating non-league Gateshead and Birmingham City in rounds three and four respectively.

Captain Darren Fletcher is cup tied and Victor Anichebe misses out with a groin strain while Callum McManaman is doubtful with a foot problem.

Berahino, who hit his eighteenth goal of the season last time out, is 7.0 (6/1) to get the first goal of the game with William Hill, with Brown Idaye an 8.0 (7/1) chance with the same firm.

Both teams have scored in ten of the last twelve meetings between the sides, and you may be tempted to back that outcome this time around at 2.1 (11/10) with Bet Victor, while Betfair offer 2.6 (8/5) for there to be at least three goals scored in the game.

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