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Game #4694

Aston Villa

Wednesday, 26 December 2001

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Lost

8th (-)

Last 5: 🟨 🟥 🟩 🟥 🟥

Premier League

Liverpool

Villa Park

Attendance: 42,602

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

Aston Villa

1-2

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Liverpool

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Assist(s) | Not recorded

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

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MATCH TIMELINE
Wednesday, 26 December 2001

🥅 | 9’ Goal, 0-1, (Liverpool), Jari Litmanen
⚽ | 21’ Goal, 1-1, Lee Hendrie
💥 | 35’ Missed Penalty, (Liverpool)
🕒 | HT Aston Villa 1-1 Liverpool
🔁 | 47’ Sub off, Lee Hendrie, Sub on, Ian Taylor
🟨 | 54’ Booking, George Boateng
🥅 | 73’ Goal, 1-2, (Liverpool), Vladimir Smicer
🔁 | 81’ Sub off, Jlloyd Samuel, Sub on, Steve Stone
🕒 | FT Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool

Match Statistics

Not recorded

Goal ⚽, Assist 🔥, Goal Conceded 🥅, Injury 🚑, Booking 🟨, Sending off 🟥, Comment 🗒️, ❗ Villa Chance,❗❗Huge Villa Chance, 💥 Opposition action, 🎥 VAR, 🆘 Referee error, ❌ Missed pen, disallowed goal, player retires from field of play, 🟢 Debut, 🔴 Final appearance, 🕒 Half time, Full time, 🔁 Substitution

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

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ON THIS DAY
Wednesday, 26 December 2001
  • A questionable refereeing performance sees Villa beaten by a poor Liverpool outfit to make it one win in nine Premier League games and five defeats to sit 8th in the table.

  • Villa's dreadful run now extends to 10 games with 6 defeats and a single victory under John Gregory since the start of November.

  • Referee D'Urso gifts Liverpool the game and Villa get a shrug of the shoulders and John Gregory sent off after a Schmeichel clearance hits the referee, bounces to the Liverpool player, who fires the ball unchallenged into an empty net.

  • Peter Schmeichel concedes his 25th goal in a Villa shirt on his 23rd appearance and is now without a clean sheet in 6 games to make it W11 D5 L7, 25 Goals Conceded at a rate of 1.09 goals per game and 9 Clean Sheets (39%) so far in his Villa career.

  • Juan Pablo Ángel makes his 25th start in a Villa shirt (29 Starts) to make it W12 D6 L11, 12 Goals, 3 Assists and 2 Bookings at a goal involvement rate of one for every 1.67 starts so far in his Villa career.

  • Darius Vassell makes his 25th start in a Villa shirt (81 Appearances) to make it W33 D18 L30, 14 Goals, 5 Assists, 9 Bookings and 1 Red Card so far in his Villa career at a goal involvement rate of one for every 4.26 games played so far in his Villa career.

  • Lee Hendrie scores his 20th goal in a Villa shirt on his 174th appearance (134 Starts) to make it W74 D46 L54, 20 Goals, 17 Assists, 31 Bookings and 3 Red Cards so far in his Villa career at a goal involvement rate of one for every 4.83 games he has played so far in his Villa career.

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

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DEBUT APPEARANCES

None

FINAL APPEARANCES

None

Seasons | 🕒 Games | ✅ Starts (🔁 Subs) | ⚽ Goals | 🔥 Assists | 🇺 Unused | Player Number |

Aston Villa

European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
UEFA Cup Winners: ❌
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1995-96

Liverpool

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European Cup / Champions League: 🏆🏆🏆🏆
UEFA Cup / Europa League: 🏆🏆🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 2000-01

FIXTURE HISTORY
Liverpool
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Previous 5 vs. Liverpool: 🟨 🟨 🟥 🟥 🟩

Games 🕒, Won 🟩, Drew 🟨, Lost 🟥, Goals Scored ⚽, Goals Conceded 🥅

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

FIXTURE DETAILS
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Season | 2001-02 |
Matchday | #29 |
League Game | #19 |
Manager Game | #185 |
Wednesday, 26 December 2001

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🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

MATCH SUMMARY
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Manager: John Gregory | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Scunthorpe, 1998-2002
Referee: Andy D'Urso | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Essex, 1999-2005
Kick off: 3.00pm
HT Score: 🟨 1-1
FT Score: 🟥 1-2
FT Result: 🟥 Lost
Last 5: 🟨 🟥 🟩 🟥 🟥

Scorers
Timeline
On This Day
Trophies
Fixture
Manager
MANAGERIAL RECORD
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John Gregory | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1998-2002

🕒 184 | 🟩 | 81 🟨 | 48 🟥 55 | 1.58

Villa Career Form:

Top 8

John Gregory | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1998-2002

Games 🕒, Won 🟩, Drew 🟨, Lost 🟥, Points per Game

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

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MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Andy D'Urso | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Essex, 1999-2005

REFEREE PROFILE

Referee: Andy D'Urso | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Essex, 1999-2005
🕒 6 | 🟩 2 | 🟨 2 | 🟥 2 | 🆘 : 1
Cards 🟨 10 | 🟥 1 |
Penalty ⚽ 0 | 🥅 1 |

VAR PROFILE (from 2021)

CARDS
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🟨 George Boateng

CARDS
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None

Won 🟩, Drew 🟨, Lost 🟥, Notably poor performance 🆘, Cards 🟨 Booking, Cards 🟥 Sending off, Disallowed ❌ Goal disallowed, ⚽ Penalty for, 🥅 Penalty against, ❌ Penalty Disallowed

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

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TEAM NEWS
TEAM STATS

Lee Hendrie, Darius Vassell and Hassan Kachloul return with Dion Dublin, Gareth Barry and Steve Stone dropping out.

Starting XI Average Age
| 27.98 |

Oldest Player |
GK Peter Schmeichel | 🇩🇰 | 38.13 |

Youngest Player |
RB Jlloyd Samuel | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 20.76 |

Referee

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

MANAGER

John Gregory | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 1998-2002

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Aston Villa

GK Peter Schmeichel | 🇩🇰 |
RB Jlloyd Samuel | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔁 |
LB Steve Staunton | 🇮🇪 |
LB Alan Wright | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Olof Mellberg | 🇸🇪 |
M George Boateng | 🇳🇱 | 🟨 |
M Hassan Kachloul | 🇲🇦 |
M Lee Hendrie | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ | 🔁 |
M Paul Merson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CF Juan Pablo Ángel | 🇨🇴 |
F Darius Vassell | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

MANAGER

Gérard Houllier | 🇫🇷 | (ft)

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Liverpool

GK Jerzy Dudek | 🇵🇱 |
LB John Arne Riise | 🇳🇴 |
CB Jamie Carragher | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Stéphane Henchoz | 🇨🇭 |
CB Sami Hyypiä | 🇫🇮 |
M Vladimir Šmicer | 🇨🇿 | ⚽ | 🔁 |
M Patrik Berger | 🇨🇿 |
M Dietmar Hamann | 🇩🇪 |
M Steven Gerrard | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔁 |
CF Michael Owen | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CF Jari Litmanen | 🇫🇮 | ⚽ | 🔁 |

Line Ups

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

SUBSTITUTES
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🔁 M Ian Taylor | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | for M Lee Hendrie | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 47’ |
🔁 M Steve Stone | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | for FB Jlloyd Samuel | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 81’ |

SUBSTITUTES

🔁 | M Vladimir Šmicer | 🇨🇿 | (M Gary McAllister | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |)
🔁 | M Steven Gerrard | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | (M Danny Murphy | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |)
🔁 | CF Jari Litmanen | 🇫🇮 | (CF Nicolas Anelka | 🇫🇷 |)

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Substitutes

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
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GK Peter Enckelman | 🇫🇮 |
CF Dion Dublin | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Gareth Barry | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
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GK Chris Kirkland | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
RB Stephen Wright | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

Player Positions:

GK : Goalkeeper
CB, D, B : Centre Back, Defender, Back
FB, LB, RB, WH : Full Back, Left Back, Right Back, Wing Back, Wing Half


M, CH, LH, RH : Midfielder, Centre Half, Left Half, Right Half
W, OL, OR : Winger, Outside Left, Outside Right
F, IF, IL, IR : Forward, Inside Forward, Inside Left, Inside Right, Second Striker, False 9
CF : Centre Forward

Match Symbols:

⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution

🟨 | Booking

🟥 | Sending off

🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game

Squad Bios

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

SQUAD STATS
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1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 5/11
Homegrown: 3/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 9/16
Homegrown: 4/16

SQUAD STATS
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1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 5/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 7/16

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

MATCHDAY SQUAD
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MATCHDAY SQUAD
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🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

UNAVAILABLE
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Not recorded

UNAVAILABLE
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Not Recorded

Unavailable
LEAGUE TABLE
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Tables & Programmes
🟩 12 Apr 2025, Villa 3-0 Southampton, St Mary's TBL.png
MATCHDAY PROGRAMME
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2021-22 Matchweek 38.jpg

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

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MATCH QUOTES
“I was sent off. Mr D’Urso told me to sit back in the stand. I presume it was for questioning a couple of decisions the linesman made. I must have hit a nerve and he took umbrage at the comments I made and no doubt I’ll be reported. “I’m not proud of them, but I felt I was 100 per cent correct at what I said. I was amazed at the penalty. “The referee [D’Urso] took it down well and showed a bit of skill, and I think he said: `Go on Jari, have a go.’ But I think it was a bit strong when he ran to the Kop and celebrated.” John Gregory. “Sometimes you feel as if everybody’s against you.” Villa coach John Deehan. “There was no luck involved.” Liverpool assistant manager Phil Thompson.
Quotes

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

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MATCH REPORTS

Opens in New Window

*The Daily Telegraph*
Wednesday, 26 December 2001
*Liverpool favoured by fortune* If, in this most unpredictable of seasons, luck is a requisite requirement for winning the title, the engravers can beginning inscribing the name of Liverpool on the Premiership trophy. A capricious game ended with Liverpool returning to winning ways, after claiming one point from their previous three games, with a winning goal from Vladimir Smicer. Fortune presented itself in the shape of their first goal when, after eight minutes, Peter Schmeichel launched one of his trademark missile-like throws. Through no fault of anybody, least of all Andy D’Urso, the ball struck the referee in the back and bounced invitingly to Jari Litmanen. With Schmeichel still at the edge of the area, the Finn, from 35 yards, had the simple task of returning the ball. Villa responded, through Lee Hendrie, but the game also saw John Gregory sent from the dugout after questioning two decisions, including a penalty awarded to Liverpool after Steven Gerrard, sent off at Anfield for an unpleasant challenge on George Boateng, fell under the weight of a tackle from the Dutchman. That Litmanen struck the right post was of little consolation to Gregory, who had previously complained when Owen appeared to be offside. On both occasions, Gregory directed his angst towards assistant referee Ray Gould who, having warned him, called over D’Urso, who advised the manager to leave. Giving his past indiscrections with officialdom, Gregory can expect another touchline ban, to follow the two-month, 11-game punishment of two years ago, which followed two separate incidents. Gregory, also warned after an incident last season at Sunderland, said: “I was sent off. Mr D’Urso told me to sit back in the stand. I presume it was for questioning a couple of decisions the linesman made. I must have hit a nerve and he took umbrage at the comments I made and no doubt I’ll be reported. “I’m not proud of them, but I felt I was 100 per cent correct at what I said. I was amazed at the penalty.” While victory keeps Liverpool in third place, three points behind leaders Newcastle with a game in hand, Villa have just one win in nine games since topping the Premiership in October. The bizarre incident which led to the opening goal bemused Gregory who, while ruing the day’s events, still had time to quip: “The referee took it down well and showed a bit of skill, and I think he said: `Go on Jari, have a go.’ But I think it was a bit strong when he ran to the Kop and celebrated.” After that goal, Villa levelled, in the 20th minute, when Juan Pablo Angel’s volley was parried by Jerzy Dudek but finished by Hendrie. The penalty decision was harsh and as the crowd sang “the referee’s a Scouser,” Litmanen struck the post. Liverpool were recipients of further fortune midway through the second half when Ian Taylor hit the post and, from the rebound, Paul Merson’s attempt was cleared off the line by John Arne Riise. The visitors introduced new signing Nicolas Anelka for the last 22 minutes and he showed promising signs, though his new team had to rely on Dudek to make an outstanding save to deny Darius Vassell before they went ahead again. In the 73rd minute Patrik Berger’s long ball dropped invitingly to Smicer who chested and volleyed beyond Schmeichel.
Reports

🟥 26 Dec 2001, Villa 1-2 Liverpool, Villa Park

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MATCH VIDEO
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