James Milner told BT Sport that one of the Aston Villa players remarkably told him that he hadn’t played for ‘two months’ as they were locking horns with Liverpool in the FA Cup.
With Villa’s entire first-team having to self-isolate, those in B6 had to put together some of their under-23’s and under-18’s to compete against some of the world’s best.
Jurgen Klopp played a pretty strong side despite coming up against kids, with the likes of Mo Salah, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Gini Wijnaldum, Sadio Mane, Xherdan Shaqiri and Thiago all featuring.
Milner was another starter during Liverpool’s win and he shared that the situation ‘wasn’t ideal’ for either side.
“They are good players, they are at Aston Villa for a reason,” said Milner. “Every single time you are not quite then you are going to get punished and they did.
“One of the lads said that they hadn’t played for two months, so it wasn’t ideal for either team, nobody wants this but it’s where we are, at this moment.”
The Villa youngsters have to be commended because they gave the Premier League champions a right good scare.
Even though a five minutes blitz in the second half put the game to bed, for large parts of the game, the youngsters made it competitive.
And a certain Louie Barry, who scored perhaps the goal of the night, will remember that moment for the rest of his life.
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