Brighton 0 Aston Villa 3: Marcus Rashford scores again after FA Cup heroics as Asensio and Malen seal win
MARCUS RASHFORD has got a pep in his step once again as he hit his first Premier League goal for Aston Villa.
The English striker now has seven goal contributions in just six starts since joining Aston Villa on loan in January after a bitter exit from Manchester United.
But the move couldn’t have gone better for him with the forward now a Champions League quarter-finalist, an FA Cup semi-finalist and also on a sprint finish towards the top four.
Rashford was on target on 51 minutes, then Brighton’s Simon Adingra had a goal chalked off by VAR for a Kaoru Mitoma handball before Marco Asensio doubled the lead on 78 minutes and Donyell Malen topped it all off in added time.
Rashford’s last top-flight goal came four months ago on December 1 in Manchester United’s 4-0 drubbing of Everton.
All the talk then was how the Rashford revival was on but how times have changed since then.
The 27-year-old is now loving life under Villa boss Unai Emery who he has the trust of – something lost under former Old Trafford bosses Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim.
The fans love him too, and the away end was bouncing throughout, rubbing salt into Brighton’s wounds with chants of ‘Que Sera, Sera’ after Villa booked their spot at Wembley.
Meanwhile the Seagulls suffered heartbreak when they were knocked out by Nottingham Forest in a penalty shootout on Saturday and relying on finishing in the European spots to brighten up this season.
There was a nervy start for Bart Verbruggen as he spilled Ezri Konsa’s header but recovered just before Rashford could pounce on the ball.
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Rashford hit back again after latching onto Boubacar Kamara’s inch-perfect cross and twisting inside and out before firing wide.
On 25 minutes Adingra brought the game to life with a peach of a shot just wide of the far post after being teed up by Mitoma.
The Amex went bezerk as Mitoma went to the floor after a light shove from Matty Cash in the box, but referee Stuart Attwell waved the penalty shouts away.
It was a clash of two very animated managers on the touchline, who started going at it.
Fabian Hurzeler was giving fourth official Simon Hooper an earful before Unai Emery complained that the Brighton boss was out of his technical area, despite often being out of his own.
There was a VAR check after Jack Hinshelwood cleverly poked the ball away from an onrushing Jacob Ramsey in the box, but no penalty was given.
Just before the break Yasin Ayari curled a jaw-dropping free-kick off the post before the ball ricocheted onto the arm of Ramsey but there was nothing he could do about it.
Brighton were livid, with huge shouts that there should have been a penalty for handball.
Martinez saved a Jan Paul van Hecke header then rolled it out to Morgan Rogers who put it on a plate for Rashford to produce a lovely finish.
The lead seemed to have lasted just four minutes as a desperate scramble in the box left Adingra slotting home from close range on 55 minutes.
But VAR rained on Brighton’s parade as referee Attwell was called over to the monitor as the ball had struck Mitoma’s arm in the process and no goal was given.
Villa were in dreamland when Asensio doubled the lead by slotting into the bottom corner, with the assist again coming from Rogers on 78 minutes.
The away end was singing ‘Is this the Way to Barcelona’ as Brighton fans flooded to the nearest exits.
In the dying seconds John McGinn outmuscled his man to play the ball to Asensio, who in turn teed up Donyell Malen for the icing on the cake, 10 minutes into injury time.