Benteke bound to return to fire Aston Villa to Bradford success
Published:Aston Villa have generally been scoring for fun in the Capital One Cup this season and this only enhances the probability of Christian Benteke scoring at any time in the 90 minutes in the first leg of the semi final at Bradford.
Villa have netted 14 goals in their four fixtures in the competition this season thus far, with 11 of these coming in three away games.
Benteke may have only scored one at Norwich in the quarter finals, but was on target twice when Villa last travelled to lower-league opposition in the Capital One Cup, which was at Swindon.
He is 10/11 to score at any time at Bradford and he should have benefitted immensely from a rare rest when left out of Aston Villa’s FA Cup triumph at home to Ipswich, after 21 successive appearances.
Another boost to Villa continuing their rich vein of scoring form is the fact that Bradford conceded four in their last showdown at Valley Parade when Rochdale were the visitors.
Furthermore, they only have one clean sheet in their last five League Two games, which suggests that Villa should be highly capable of finding the target.
Paul Lambert’s men are 8/11 to return to Villa Park for the second leg of the semi final with an advantage and they have not been knocked out of a domestic cup by a team from a lower division since a 2005 defeat to Sheffield United.
The other player that has regularly been on the scoresheet in Villa’s cup run is Gabby Agbonlahor, who made his return to the first team after a six-game absence as a second-half substitute against Ipswich.
His pace will be a major asset against Bradford, especially in the latter stages, and given his recent lack of games, another substitute appearance is likely.
Agbonlahor appeals at 6/1 to score the last goal at Valley Parade.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
