Aston Villa 2 Cardiff 0: Asensio double as Emery’s side labour to win to become first team in FA Cup quarter-final pot

MARCO ASENSIO has won 17 major honours with Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain.

But the Spaniard only has one Spanish and one French Cup to show for his efforts.

However he set himself up for a crack at a unique hat-trick at Wembley in May by firing the double which sent Aston Villa into their first FA Cup quarter-final since 2015.

With a little help from another FA Cup newcomer… semi-automated offside technology!

The new high-tec system was a hit as it swiftly decided Marcus Rashford was marginally ONSIDE in the build up to Asensio‘s breakthrough goal after 68 minutes.

Youri Tielemans‘ clever chip sprang the former Manchester United man who was playing on the shoulder of a Cardiff defender.

And when Rashford squared the ball, Asensio swept the ball past Ethan Horvath to finally break the Bluebirds resistance.

Normally we might have spent five minutes waiting for blue and red lines to be drawn and scrutinised.

Here the job was done in seconds – and so were Cardiff – when Asensio added a second 12 minutes later to finally bury the Welsh club.

There was a sense of “Friends Reunited,” prior to kick-off with plenty of connections between both clubs.

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Villa played a classy tribute to their former striker and ex-Bluebird Peter Whittingham on their giant video screens before the teams emerged.

And there was a banner raised to remember the popular forward who tragically died aged just 35 in March 2020 after suffering a fatal head injury in a fall.

Two former Villans, Anwar El Ghazi and Callum Robinson led Cardiff out, with El Ghazi’s two sons among the mascots.

There was also a reunion with Villa for Cardiff midfielder Aaron Ramsey – a decade after he was part of the Arsenal team who thumped Villa 4-0 in the 2015 FA Cup final.

Unai Emery wasn’t messing about as he fielded close to his the strongest side, starting with fit-again Emi Martinez in goal.

But despite boasting a front four of Bailey, Asensio, Rashford and Watkins, Villa found it hard to break through Omer Riza’s thin blue line.

Rashford whipped a free kick over the Cardiff wall but it sailed into the waiting gloves of stand-in goalie Ethan Horvath.

The American goalie then fielded a curling effort from John McGinn before Rashford had a clean air swipe at the ball after Youri Tielemans picked him out from a corner-kick routine.

Ollie Watkins timed his run to perfection to get on the end of Asensio’s slide rule pass but his poked effort was touched fractionally wide by Horvath.

Ramsey hurled himself in front of Tielemans to block the Belgian in front of goal before the Bluebirds broke upfield to create a bit of FA Cup history.

As El Ghazi burst into the box Ian Maatsen barged him to the ground with a good old-fashioned shoulder-charge.

No fewer than THREE VAR assistants, Robert Jones, Darren England and “Additional Video Assistant Referee,” Paul Howard (no, me neither) were poised to review it.

Until the semi-automated offside system kicked in and judged the Dutchman as offside.

Fortunately the players are not automated… yet… because if they were Villa would have been four or five up by half-time.

Instead, Marcus Rashford and Ollie Watkins went in at the break, red-faced, following a couple of embarrassing misses.

Bailey had just been denied an opener when his ferocious volley was brilliantly turned over by Horvath when he turned provider.

The Jamaican international got round Cardiff’s back five and took Horvath out with a fiercely hit cut-back.

Rashford was unmarked three yards from goal but failed to get his footwork right and somehow fired over the gaping net.

He will argue the ball arrived slightly behind him but it was a chance a player of his quality would expect to gobble up 99 times out of 100.

Not to be outdone, Watkins also missed a snip.

He ran onto a Rashford header, only to poke his shot off Horvath’s chest from point-blank range with the goal at his mercy.

In fact Cardiff were unlucky not to win a penalty when Lamare Bogarde clipped Perry Ng’s boot to send him tumbling in the box.

But the one-way traffic continued after the break with Horvath producing a couple of wonder saves to defy McGinn and Rashford.

Cardiff had brought Yousef Salech on for the injured Robinson and the sub managed Cardiff’s only shot on target after 66 minutes, forcing Emi Martinez into a fine save low to his left.

Ninety seconds later Asensio struck to cement his love-affair with Villa fans on a night when he doubled his tally to four goals since arriving on loan in January.