Villa beat Blackburn in Hong Kong
Wednesday 27th July 2011, 3:31PM BST.
Darren Bent scored his third goal of pre-season as Villa today booked their place in the final of the Barclays Asia Trophy with a 1-0 win over Blackburn in Hong Kong.
The England international, who bagged two against Walsall last week, scored the only goal of the game in the 48th minute to ensure Villa will meet Chelsea or Hong Kong outfit Kitchee Sports Club in Saturday’s final.
Villa manager Alex McLeish handed Gabby Agbonlahor his first start in pre-season, after he missed the 3-1 victory over Walsall with an ankle injury, while Marc Albrighton dropped to the bench.
McLeish made one other change from the team that started at Walsall, as Barry Bannan came in for Stephen Ireland in midfield while Emile Heskey and Agbonlahor started in wide positions.
Blackburn had the first chance of a low-key start when Jason Roberts set up Mauro Formica in the 10th minute and his sweetly-struck shot from outside the box was parried to safety by Villa goalkeeper Shay Given.
Four minutes later, Bannan curled a superb ball to the back post which found the run of Stephen Warnock but his knock back to Bent was cleared.
Stiliyan Petrov forced Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson to make a save moments later, after controlling the ball brilliantly to strike a half-volley which went straight at Robinson.
But Villa took the lead three minutes after the interval through Bent, after neat build-up involving Petrov and Heskey saw the ball spread out to the right to Bannan.
The Scotland international curled a dangerous ball into the box and Bent was on hand to get the decisive touch to steer the ball past Robinson from close range.
Given was called into action shortly afterwards, diving at full length to tip a long-range shot from Brett Emerton around the post.
Then a neat Villa move in the 84th minute saw Bent set up Heskey, but the powerful striker lashed his shot over the bar.
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