Emi Buendia delivers 'special' Aston Villa verdict after 8/10 display at Wycombe

The Villans are in the hat for the last 16 of the Carabao Cup after seeing off League One side Wycombe by two goals to one.

It was a tricky night at Adams Park as the Chairboys put up a good fight and were dangerous on the counter-attack, but a looping header from Buendia and a converted penalty from Jhon Duran proved enough for Villa to advance.

Unai Emery’s men were always expected to progress given they were playing a team 50 places below them in the English footballing pyramid, but hard graft still had to go in to make that a reality. A whopping 10 changes had been made from the 3-1 win against Wolves, after all, and several youngsters were handed senior debuts either from the start or off the bench.

Tuesday night’s victory certainly wasn’t a walk in the park and it was a result Buendia definitely didn’t take for granted. The one-time Argentina international missed all of last season with a serious knee injury and is drinking in every moment he gets to represent Villa upon his return.

“It’s a really special night, to come back and play again for this club - in my fourth season - I really love this club. To help the team with a goal to get to the next round of the cup, it’s an amazing feeling.” Buendia told Sky Sports post-match.

“We have a really big squad which we showed today. With the young lads, we have an amazing academy. We showed our quality, we know it’s hard to come here as they push hard and press a lot but we tried to play our game, keeping our philosophy. We got our win.”

On his goal, Buendia added: “It’s where I need to be more often, in the box, fortunately I had a deflection come to me and I tried to head it as far as possible over the goalkeeper. It was good.”

Handed an 8/10 in BirminghamWorld’s player ratings, Buendia ran his socks off for his team and was worthy of donning the armband for the first time in his senior career. The goal was just the cherry on top in what was an impressive performance from the attacking midfielder.

It undoubtedly won’t be Buendia’s last this season as he aims to re-enter Emery’s plans on a regular basis. It’s superb to have him back.