Women's FA Cup preview: Albion visit Aston Villa

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A look-ahead to Saturday's fifth round tie at the Poundland Stadium.

Bruce Talbot

2025-02-07T06:00+00:00

Dario Vidosic is looking forward to facing an Aston Villa team with 'very good players.' 📷 Paul Hazlewood.

Albion are back in Adobe FA Cup action on Saturday, when we take on Aston Villa at Walsall’s Poundland Stadium, kick off 12 noon, in the fifth round. The game is being shown live on the FA’s WSL YouTube channel.

Team news

At his pre-match press conference Dario Vidosic said the squad will be similar to last Sunday’s game against Crystal Palace. He confirmed that Bruna Vilamala faces an extended spell out with a thigh injury suffered in the fourth round win over Durham.

Dario Vidosic’s view

“It's a tough game made tougher with Aston Villa appointing a new manager. This will be her, I believe, second week with the squad, so they'll probably work on something this week and we'll have to adjust within the game to see if there are any changes, and I expect there will be a few little tweaks to what they were doing with the previous manager to now.

“We know they're a very good team with very good players. They are at home, but we had a really good game the first time we've played each other and I think tomorrow will be no different.”

The opposition

Villa are onto their third manager of a difficult season.

Robert De Pauw replaced Carla Ward last June and rebuilt the squad, bringing in eight new players including former Albion winger Katie Robinson. But having won just once in the WSL he was sacked in December. Caretaker Shaun Goater oversaw a 3-1 win over Everton before Natalia Arroyo was appointed in January.

The 38-year-old Spaniard, who left Real Sociedad at the end of the 2023/24 season, signed a three-and-a-half-year deal, and in her first game in charge was eight minutes from securing a draw with Chelsea last Saturday when an own goal by Sarah Mayling saw the leaders squeeze home 1-0.

At the Broadfield Stadium in October, Albion won 4-2 with Nikita Parris, Pauline Bremer, Fran Kirby and Michelle Agyemang on target. Rachel Daly scored both Villa’s goals. In the fourth round, Villa beat Bristol Rovers 9-0.

Match officials