Aston Villa vs Bristol City predictions: Aston Villa report

An exciting game at Villa Park ended 2-1 in favour of Aston Villa, a key win in the race for the promotion play-off spot. It was entertaining, exciting, energetic, and the home side did dominate a lot of the proceedings.

In fact, in the first half, while Villa had a few clear-cut chances, they failed to make the most.

John McGinn proved to be a big hit once again, with the former Celtic man having a brilliant season for his new club. The midfielder delivered a delicious cross into the final third for Albert Adomah but his header only managed to find the post.

From there, Bristol City had control, with Jay DaSilva causing a lot of problems. The left-back was a menace, bobbing up and down the wings, causing a lot of trouble for Villa’s back-line with a few good crosses.

From there, the yellow card made its first appearance, with a flurry of them being handed out to both sides. The best chance of the first half, however, fell to superstar Tammy Abraham and he fluffed the lines.

With an exquisite first touch, the Chelsea loanee brought the ball down in the box and looked to get the shot off but to his absolute dismay, McGinn came in the way.

The shot deflected off the midfielder and while he should have left it to Villa’s top scorer, few would object his display. Arguably their best player in the game, the 24-year-old was literally everywhere.

Minutes later, however, another star of the night, Anwar El Ghazi delivered the first of his crosses and Conor Hourihane managed to only get a rather great save from Max O’Leary.

Bristol City did their best to keep Aston Villa out of their box in the opening half and it worked brilliantly. The home side cut a frustrated figure going into the break and none more so than Tammy Abraham.

It was more or less the same in the second half, although Villa finally got the ball in the back of the net.

However, that was disallowed as Abraham was offside but he made up for it minutes later by calmly slotting the penalty home. Hourihane was fouled inside the box and Abraham put aside everything to put his side in the lead.

After that, Villa seemed to have the advantage and they doubled their lead with a wonderful team effort that was finished by Hourihane.

However, the plaudit should go to El Ghazi, with the Egyptian dancing around before laying it off for Taylor, who laid it off for Hourihane. He made no mistake and Villa had an insurance policy.

But that did not last for long, with Bristol City pulling one back via an incredible acrobatic finish from Famara Diedhiou. Easily the away side’s best player on the day, the 27-year-old netted his 12^th goal of the season, and that added pressure.

However, Bristol City failed to make more of their pressure in the final minutes, and the goal proved to be the last big moment of the game. Things could have been much worse for Bristol City, but goalkeeper Max O’Leary had a rather fantastic game between the sticks.

The 22-year-old justified his place on the team sheet with a phenomenal performance, giving Aston Villa’s forwards a tough time. For Villa, it means that they’ve managed to win 8 in a row for the first time in over 40 years.

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