It will go down as one of the most memorable Carling Cup semi-finals in history.

Blackburn Rovers, 1-0 down from the first leg jumped out to a 2-0 advantage on aggregate through two goals from Nikola Kalinic.

But Villa got back on level terms when former Blackburn defender Stephen Warnock scored and then Blackburn defender Christopher Samba was sent off for bringing down Gabriel Agbonlahor inside the box. James Milner scored from the subsequent spot kick to make it 3-2 Villa on aggregate.

Villa looked to have put the game away when they scored three more times in the 17 minutes of the second half through Agbonlahor, Emile Heskey and an own goal from Steven Nzonzi.

But credit to Blackburn, they were not done and two goals from Martin Olsson and Brett Emerton made it 6-4 on aggregate before Ashley Young sealed the game for Villa.