Marcus Rashford has again received a Pep in his step when he hit his first Premier League goal for Aston Villa.
The English striker now has seven target contributions in just six starts since he came to Bumleen at Aston Villa in January after a bitter exit from Manchester United.
But the move could not have gone better for him with the attacker now a quarter-finalist from Champions League, a FA Cup semi-finalist and also on a sprint finish to the top four.
Rashford was on goal at 51 minutes, when Simon Adingra van Brighton had a goal with VAR matched a Kaoru Mitoma handball before Marco Asensio doubled the lead in 78 minutes and Donyell Malen beat it all in added time.
The last top goal of Rashford came four months ago on December 1 in Manchester United's 4-0 Drubbing by Everton.
All the talk was then what the Rashford revival was, but how times have changed since then.
The 27-year-old now loves life under Villa boss Unai Emery from whom he has lost confidence under former Old Trafford bosses Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim.
The fans also love him, and the end bounced everywhere, rubbed salt into the wounds of Brighton with hymns of 'Que Sera, Sera' after Villa had booked their place at Wembley.
In the meantime, the seagulls suffered heartache when they were eliminated by Nottingham Forest in a penalty shootout on Saturday and trusted in the European places to brighten up this season.
There was a nervy start for Bart Verbruggen when he spilled the header of Ezri Konsa, but recovered just before Rashford could jump on the ball.
Casino Special – Best Casino Bonuses of £ 10 deposits
Rashford hit back again after locking Boubacar Kamarara's centimeter-perfect cross and turn inside and out before he shoots wide.
At 25 minutes, Adingra brought the game to life with a peach of a shot just wide from the distant pole after he was picked up by Mitoma.
The Amex took a look when Mitoma went to the floor after a light push from Matty Cash in the box, but referee Stuart Attwell waved shouting away with the penalty shouting.
It was a collision of two highly animated managers on the touchline, who started to go with it.
Fabian Hurzeler gave the fourth official Simon Hooper an earful before Unai Emery complained that the Brighton boss was from his technical area, even though he was often not out of his own.
There was a VAR check after Jack Hinshelwood had cleverly put the ball from an additional Jacob Ramsey in the box, but no punishment was given.
Just before the break, Yasin Ayari curled a stunning free kick from the pole before the ball ricoched on the arm of Ramsey, but there was nothing that he could do about it.
Brighton was furious, with enormous shouting that there should have been a punishment for handball.
Martinez saved a header from Jan Paul van Hecke and then rolled him out to Morgan Rogers who put it on a sign for Rashford to produce a nice finish.
The lead seemed to have lasted only four minutes because a desperate clambered in the Adingra slot from close by at 55 minutes from close by.
But VAR rained on the Parade of Brighton when referee Attwell was called to the monitor because the ball had hit the process of Mitoma and no goal was given.
Villa was in Dreamland when Asensio doubled the lead by swinging in the bottom corner, with the assist again from Rogers at 78 minutes.
The end sang 'This is the road to Barcelona' while fans from Brighton flooded to the nearest outputs.
In the dying seconds, John McGinn surpasses his husband to play the ball to Asensio, who in turn grind Donyell up for the icing on the cake, 10 minutes in injury time.
Comments