Six Goals, Red Card & Penalty Shootout - Aston Villa v Birmingham City Highlights - Subway WLC 25-26

Aston Villa welcome neighbours, Birmingham City, a final chance for both sides to boost their hopes of progressing to the quarterfinals, with the added bit of spice of tonight being the first second City derby in over three and a half years. Let's have a look at the team news. The Spaniard makes four changes following that 3-1 defeat. Former England number one Ellie Roebuck continues as the club's goalkeeper in this competition. Sarah Mayling comes into defence and was honoured pitchside moments ago to celebrate her 15-year association with Aston Villa. Anna Patton makes her first League Cup appearance of the season. As for Birmingham City, Amy Merricks makes three changes to the team who beat Portsmouth six days ago. Goalkeeper Adriana French makes her third appearance of the season. It's a second consecutive start in the League Cup for Niamh Heron, plus a return for Oceane Hurts who's been a regular in this competition. She's trying to win the ball back for Birmingham. Kearns feeds Daly. Rachel Daly picks out a teammate, Salmon, and it's a good save. It's only barred off. What a double save that is. Adriana French inside the opening couple of minutes. Merricks is away. Her cross evades everyone in Clareton Blue. Send back in. Birmingham still not clear. It's Missy Beaucairn's deflection. Salmon deflects again off Daly. Well, somehow in just over quarter an hour played, it is goalless. Get a sense that Birmingham City are beginning to grow in confidence here. Cornett crossed the weight. Sarri pokes it home. They bided their time and their fierce efforts at Ellie Roebuck's goal nestles into the corner. Viatriki Sarri with a really delicate touch, but so much to admire about the build-up here. Dangerous one. Kendall. Harris clears. Only as far as Vilms. Hecht as well. Vilms keeps it in. Aston Villa throw. Hecht and Vilms. I'm not sure that Vilms should be pushing ahead into an opponent like that. This is a decision to be made here for the referee, and I'm not surprised that Sophie Dennington has shown her a red card. That is reckless. Aston Villa's task has got even harder, and their hopes of progressing to the quarterfinals of the League Cup have gotten even slimmer. It's barely just over 10 minutes played in the second half, which is watching on now as Ebony Salmon looks to get a goal back. Maritz. Cairns. Goes for goal. That ball was shifting. Clean strike from the midfielder. Cornett. Movement on both benches, I'm told. Birmingham City preparing for a change as well, but they're looking to add to the scoreline here. Cut back to Sarri. Once again, devastatingly emphatic from Birmingham City. They further strengthen their position in this game. Malings attempts. He crosses. Blocked by Sarri. Deep one from Cairns. Mets and delivered. A vital goal back, and a pattern it is. Biggest roar of the night so far from a home perspective. A set piece does the job. French. Harris. Runs into Gee. Opens up for Mullitz. Denied. The follow-up is there. From 2-0 down, Aston Villa are back on even terms. Maling. Grant. Lewy. Tries to win it back. Grant's still going. Looking for her teammates. Has she found one? Oh! Incredible scenes at the Pallet Track, Bescott Stadium. Villa look to have won it in the 90th minute. What fantastic work this is from Chasity Grant. So a minimum of two minutes of stoppage time here. So there'll be time for Birmingham City to take this corner. Maltby. Birmingham's corner. Roebuck gets a fist to it. Heron. McKenna. Lewy. She looks towards the assistant. The flag stays down, so we have an equaliser in stoppage time. One end to the other. The drama continues. Aston Villa 3, Birmingham City 3. Grant. It's going to fall to Cairns, and she can't keep the strike down. Incredible scenes here. Both sides going all out, and we still play on. What a roller coaster that was. So it's one point apiece. Sadly it does mean that Birmingham City, even if they are to go on and win the shootout, their hopes of progressing in the Subway Women's League Cup are over, but this could be huge for Aston Villa to try and apply more pressure on Tottenham Hotspur. Harrison Murray finds the back of the nets. One nil to the Blues. So Sarah Maling to level things up, and she's denied by French. The American who's such an imposing figure in that goal. Harris. Very assured spot kick there from an experienced player. Patton. And she went the right way, but that is a really cleanly struck penalty. Is this to make it Birmingham 3-1 up? And she does so. Nonchalant spot kick from the Greece international. What can Missy Bo Cairns do in reply here? She finds the back of the nets. French went the same way for the third successive penalty. Quinn. Never in doubt. So Aston Villa have to score to keep this shootout going. Kendall. Denied! And it is Birmingham City who win another spot kick duel in this competition. And once again, it's congratulations to Adriana French. Smiles go to those in blue. They can take home the bragging rights. 3-3 at full time, and Birmingham City get the extra bonus points after winning 4-2 on penalties. Yeah, you know, so it's a derby. We want to show what we're about. It means a lot to the club, and I think we showed that today with the passion we brought onto the pitch and also the quality. I think it was a game of up and downs for us. We started off quite well, was creating chances, and then on the run of play, they score. Then we get a player sent off, and then next thing you know, we've conceded two goals off crosses, what we've been working on all week, and I think that's disappointing for us. But I want to credit the girls, the fight to get back in the game. I think the character and the effort was excellent. But when we get our head, we can't concede two minutes later, so we'll have to work on our control and our emotions. They were, as we were expecting them to be, like competitive and aggressive in some actions. I think we were fine. We were creating chances. We were not clinical in them, and we knew that they were especially dangerous if they find wide options and crosses. They score, then the game is more difficult. When you are trying to find solutions, and we are there, the red card affects the game. Also, when you are one player down and nil-two, it's about finding a good balance between how smart you need to be, how positional you need to be, and how energetic you need to be. I'm really proud of the reaction of the players, how we were fighting for it. Just one minute, and we were almost celebrating a super reaction, almost with a 3-2. But again, a corner where we concede a second ball, third ball, and then they find the goal. I'm not sure if they deserve it or not, but anyway, credit for them because they played really well, and we couldn't even win the penalties. So proud, so proud of the team. I thought, wow, amazing. I thought first half, we were incredible. I thought we looked good. I thought two-nil, very good. Then, yes, we lost the hold on a couple of moments. I think maybe just our management are playing out. But look, we got ourselves well and truly back in it with a minute left, scoring a corner, which we finally score a corner as well. So, yes, you can probably tell by the way I'm approaching this, just absolutely delighted and very proud, proud to be part of Blues. The fans were incredible.