Bradford City of the NPower League Two are just one game away from a place in the Capital One Cup final at Wembley. This comes courtesy of a stunning 3-1 victory in the first leg of the semi-final at home to Premier League side Aston Villa. This victory also means that Bradford have beaten more top flight sides this season than both QPR and Reading.
The start of the match was very end to end, with both teams showing some attacking promise. But something had to give and it did on 19-minutes; a deflected shot fell to Bermuda's Nahki Wells who was onside, despite appeals from the Villa players, to smash Bradford ahead.
Villa should have scored earlier than they did in the game. They bombarded the Bradford goal for the remainder of the first half and even the start of the second half. But former Premier League goalkeeper, Matt Duke, was in the form of his life and produced countless saves from Christian Benteke and Gabby Agbonlahor. It was he that kept the score at 1-0 at half-time.
Darren Bent would become the latest to be stopped by Duke when he came on as a second half substitute. But Bradford hadn't shut up shop and fired a few more warning shots at Shay Given. With 13-minutes remaining, Bradford had a corner that was only half cleared. The ball went back out wide to be swung in again for Rory McArdle to head home and make it 2-0.
It could have been 3-0 when another Bradford header beat Given, but this time it cannoned off the crossbar. This looked to a crucial point in the match because Villa went up the other end and Andreas Weimann finally broke Duke's resistance to reduce the arrears with eight minutes to play, but more importantly securing an away goal.
Villa would have been content with a 2-1 deficit to take to Villa Park, especially with that away goal. But they were hit by another sucker punch with just two minutes remaining. Another corner was whipped in and Carl McHugh managed to get to it with a powerful header from around the penalty spot to make it 3-1, and also making them favourites for the final.
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