Aston Villa’s Louie Barry scored what must surely be the biggest goal of his young career when he drew at the end of the second half of his team’s FA Cup match against Liverpool today.
No one expected Villa to have much of a chance against the Reds after they were forced to use their Under-23 team due to a surge in COVID among their first team, but Barry’s goal made the game interesting for a while.
Barry was understandably moved to find the bottom of the net against the current Premier League champions, and he is sure that his family is, too.
“Placing the ball at the bottom of the net is the most proud I’ve ever had. The family was probably shouting at the TV when it hit the bottom of the network, ”said Barry.
Although Liverpool won the game 4-1 thanks to three goals in the second half, it was a great performance by the youth of Villa to keep the Reds in check for so long, and Barry will especially keep the memory of the match.
Fortunately, his coaches reminded him that he might want to keep his match shirt to celebrate the occasion before it was too late. As the players usually do, Barry changed his shirt with Fabinho, from Liverpool, full time.
After a reminder from his coaches, Barry ran through the tunnel after the makeshift Liverpool defender to see if he could recover the memory of his debut on the main team. At a class show, Fabinho kindly returned the 17-year-old’s shirt.
“I remembered it was my debut shirt. I took his shirt too, credit to Fabinho. I have both. “
This amusing anecdote was not the only healthy moment in Barry’s interview after the match with BT Sport. Despite the defeat, he expressed his pride and enthusiasm for giving his team a chance with his goal, and he rightly praised the effort of his young team that gave the champions a game for more than 60 minutes.
“Everything happened very quickly. I was happy to score – I hope to score many more. I was working very hard, and so was everyone. When I celebrated everything came out of me. For the party it was a relief. Was good.”
“I have never been so proud of a team – from start to finish we gave everything. When I scored, I thought we might have a chance. Obviously, it wasn’t like that, but we were a credit to ourselves and a credit to the club. “
This was a game that many feared and criticized for a number of valid reasons, but it gave viewers some fun moments and gave a reserve team at Aston Villa something to be proud of and remember for the rest of their lives.