Wells confident ahead of the’ game of our lives’
Bradford City’s Bermudian striker Nahki Wells is confident the Bantams can come away from today’s Capital One Cup semi-final second leg clash against Aston Villa with the desired result.The League Two side will take a two-goal advantage into today’s cup tie at Villa Park after prevailing 3-1 in the first leg earlier this month at Valley Parade where Wells scored the game’s opening goal.On the eve of the match Villa manager Paul Lambert said his team were the favourites to beat City and advance to the Wembley final.Wells, however, disagrees.“I’m confident that if we can go there and stick to the game plan we can progress,” he told The Royal Gazette.“It’s an important game for the club, so we’re going out there and be resilient and play the game in the right manner to come out victorious and progress.“We are going there to try and win the match. I’m up for it and totally confident that we can get to the final.”While confident the Bantams can keep their remarkable cup run alive, Wells admitted the task wouldn’t be easy against Premier side Villa away from home.“It’s probably going to be the hardest 90 minutes of our lives,” he said.Wells and his City team-mates will be looking to exploit a porous Villa defence that has leaked in 24 goals in their previous nine outings.“We know we are capable of scoring and hopefully we can score first and put the pressure on them,” the former Dandy Town player said.Asked whether holding a two-goal advantage put added pressure on his team, Wells said: “I think there will be pressure on both teams because we have that cushion and they have to overcome the deficit which puts pressure on them.”A draw or even a 1-0 defeat would be enough for Wells and his City team-mates to advance to the final.Bradford are seeking to become the first team from the fourth tier of English football to reach the League Cup final since Rochdale in 1962 while Wells is bidding to become only the third Bermudian footballer to play in a Wembley cup final behind Shaun Goater and Kyle Lightbourne.City will enter today’s cup tie with fresher legs after having their weekend league match with Port Vale postponed due to the frigid conditions in the UK which also forced the Yorkshire club to re-arrange their travel plans.Today’s contest will be the 40th meeting between City and Villa and first at Villa Park since September, 2000 when the latter prevailed 2-0.Villa thumped City 7-1 in the only previous League Cup meeting between the two sides at Villa Park.Villa are the only team to date to have come from two goals down after the first leg to reach the League Cup final, having done so in 1994 after overcoming a 3-1 first leg loss to Tranmere Rovers.Bradford are playing in the League Cup semi-finals for the first time while Villa have lifted the trophy five times and were the inaugural winners in 1961.They last appeared in the League Cup final in 2010, losing 2-1 to Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.Centre back Michael Nelson could make his debut for the Bantams in today’s match while striker James Hanson is expected to return to the line-up from injury (broken toe).Villa defender Nathan Baker has been ruled out with a hamstring injury but forward Andreas Weimann is back after recovering from illness.City reached the last four in the competition after beating Premier side Arsenal on penalties in the previous round.The Bantams have won nine consecutive penalty shoot-outs which is an English record.