Aston Villa’s Under-21 team recorded a hard-fought victory over Blackpool in the Vertu Trophy on Tuesday evening.
The academy team defeats the senior Premier League a team — especially one headed by an ex Villa boss Steve Bruce — is quite noteworthy, but it was the method of victory that really caught the attention.
Both teams met at Blackpoolat Bloomfield Road and played late into the night to determine the winner of this round of 32 EFL Trophy tie…
Steve Bruce’s Blackpool suffered a record penalty shootout defeat to Aston Villa’s academy team
With both teams scoring one goal each, when the referee signaled the end of the match, it went straight to a penalty shootout, as is customary in the EFL Trophy knockout stages.
Little less customarily, a total of 38 spot kicks are needed to determine the winner, with Villa being on the right side of the scoreline 18-17.
In this seemingly never-ending event, both goalkeepers stepped up and scored, and most outfield players had to play two to determine the winner.
Signs that there was little separating the teams came when Alba Morgan failed to convert the Seasiders’ second try and Villa’s Aidan Borland returned the favor by missing another penalty. Both scored on their next try, so it was Jordan Gabriel’s missed try for Blackpool that secured the long-awaited finale.
This broke the record for the most penalties ever taken in a shootout in the English professional game, a record only set earlier this season by North end of Preston AND Fulham in their 34 penalty thriller at Deepdale.
Started at 19:00 GMT, Blackpool’s X’s official account published the final result almost two and a half hours later. Time for bed!
IN FourFourTwoIn his opinion, man of the match should go to Jordan Gabriel for separating the two teams with a missed penalty – they might still be playing there if it weren’t for him.
EFL Trophy games are not known for their thrills, so trying to break the national record certainly adds something, but our thoughts still go out to those who watched the whole thing.
