Coventry City 1-3 Aston Villa: FLW report as Abraham stars in dominant Villa victory | OneFootball

FLW report from the Coventry Building Society Arena for this EFL Cup tie

Aston Villa progressed into the EFL Cup's round of 16 with a dominant display and 3-1 victory against Coventry City at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

In what was the first meeting of the two West Midlands sides since May 2001, Unai Emery's side led early on through Tammy Abraham's neat finish, before they were initially pegged back through Victor Torp's stunning free-kick.

However, Villa's quality eventually shone against Frank Lampard's men, with Ross Barkley restoring their lead minutes before half-time, before Abraham rounded off the scoring, netting a brace with 31 minutes to go.

Coventry City 1-3 Aston Villa

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The first clear-cut chance of the night yielded the opening goal for Villa after seven minutes. George Hemmings played Abraham through against Dan Bentley with an inch-perfect outside-of-the-foot ball, leaving the experienced striker to slot it into the bottom-right-hand corner.

Coventry's first response saw Torp fire just wide after Lamare Bogarde couldn't fully clear his lines after neat approach play from Stephan Mfuni, whilst Villa failed to capitalise on more below-par defensive work from the Sky Blues through John McGinn's tame effort on 20 minutes.

However, Lampard's side were level after 27 minutes as, after Barkley brought down Caleb Yirenkyi from 20 yards, Torp's subsequent free-kick left Marco Bizot with no chance.

Emery's men then rode their own luck on two occasions as the hosts grew in confidence. A lapse in concentration from Barkley and Tyrone Mings almost allowed Bobby Thomas to play Yirenkyi in for a second, whilst Gustavo Hamer came close to finding the top corner himself.

As Coventry's pressure grew, Bizot was again tested by Yann Ghobo, eventually gathering the ball to safety, before Ibrahim Mbaye sent a reminder of Villa's own attacking prowess with a low drive from 20 yards.

Another fizzing McGinn effort then paved the way for Villa's second as Barkley atoned for his mishap by glancing Mbaye's inswinger past Bentley five minutes before the break.

The final meaningful action of the first period came when Sidiki Cherif could only side-foot his effort into Bizot's midriff after being sent clear down the right-hand channel by Tatsuhiro Sakamoto.

Minutes into the second half, Hamer looked to level the scores in spectacular fashion with a curling effort past Zion Suzuki, who replaced the aforementioned Bizot at half-time for the visitors.

Villa then regained their control and were rewarded when Abraham swept home his second of the contest from a McGinn corner which evaded several bodies.

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It could have got worse for the Sky Blues the other side of the hour-mark as Hemmings' flick from Mbaye's cross only just looped over Bentley's left-hand post.

The hosts' first clear-cut chance of the half came on 68 minutes as Torp went in search of a brace, but his strike was always drifting wide of the right-hand post.

Although a quarter of the match was still to play, the encounter then petered out into a comfortable night for the competition's five-time winners who will travel to Bournemouth in the next round, whilst Coventry's frustrating start to the campaign continued.

FT: Coventry City 1-3 Aston Villa

Player Ratings

Coventry City

Dan Bentley - 6

Bobby Thomas - 5.5

Aurèle Amenda - 6 (Pinnock 12" - 6)

Stephen Mfuni - 6 (Bidwell 72" - 6)

Joel Latibeaudiere - 5

Caleb Yirenkyi - 6 (Onyeka 72" - 6)

Victor Torp - 7

Tatsuhiro Sakamoto - 6.5 (Tchaouna 58 - 6)

Gustavo Hamer - 6.5

Yann Ghobo - 6.5

Sidiki Cherif - 6 (Simms 57" - 6)

Unused Subs: B.Wilson, M.Grimes, E.Mason-Clark, B.Thomas-Asante

Aston Villa

Marco Bizot - 6 (Suzuki 46" - 6.5)

Aaron Wan-Bissaka - 7

Taylor Harwood-Bellis - 7

Tyrone Mings - 7

Matteo Ruggeri - 7.5

Lamare Bogarde - 7

Ross Barkley - 8

Ibrahim Mbaye - 8 (Buendia 64" - 7)

John McGinn - 7 (Manzambi 64" - 6.5)

George Hemmings - 7.5 (Alysson 79" - 6)

Tammy Abraham - 8.5 (Jackson 69" - 6)

Unused Subs: M.Cash, V.Lindelof, B.Kamara, A.Garnacho

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Reflecting on his side's performance, Lampard said: They started really bright, and they get a poor goal from our point of view.

"The open play goal is poor, but we reacted well, scored a fantastic free kick, and then pushed in, had good energy, all the things we wanted, and that made it difficult for them," he added.

"If you give two set pieces away, as simply as we did, then it's quite hard to win against Premier League opposition, so that's the main take.

"We're trying to find those connections because we've had to make changes today because we need players to get fit, who arrived towards the back end of the window," Lampard explained.

"They need minutes to show us what they can do and to get fit, and then you're putting players together, and then in that period (after the equaliser), you see where we want to get to.

"As I say, it's mentally difficult, in a way, for the players. You get back to 1-1, and the soft nature of the second goal, and then the third, they're not easy to come back from."

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Reacting to Villa's progress in the competition, Emery's first thoughts were: "We set out two objectives before the match.

"One is the way for a trophy in this competition, and winning it is a way to qualify for Europe in the Conference League, so we are always demanding of ourselves to be contenders for trophies.

"This competition is always very difficult, but it's a way for us to try and achieve something by playing matches like today," he added.

"The second objective is how we are building the team with our new players and understanding our demands, style and trying to compete to the level Coventry are demanding us.

"They played well for some moments during the match and we were struggling," the Villa boss continued.

"To be resilient there and understand the competition and the opponent is a positive.

"We are in the next round with Bournemouth away, and secondly we joined some players with minutes and feeling confident and comfortable in our structure."