Aston Villa moved one step closer to securing Champions League football with a see-saw 4-3 victory over Sunderland on Sunday after Tammy Abraham snatched a dramatic winner in the 94th minute at Villa Park.
The substitute striker’s late heroics extended fourth-placed Villa’s cushion over sixth-placed Chelsea to 10 points with five games remaining in the race for European football.
Sunderland scored twice in 58 seconds when trailing 3-1 to make it 3-3 and nearly won it late before Abraham struck in stoppage time with a delicate touch past the keeper to seal the three points.
“I think we got too relaxed and made a few mistakes and Sunderland punished us, they are a good team,” Abraham told Sky Sports.
“As a striker, watching Ollie (Watkins) today, he was staying alive in the box and when I came on I told myself to do the same thing. Luckily for me I was in the right place at the right time.
“We are a team that believes in ourselves. We are doing so well this season, we just have to carry on with the confidence.”
Villa appeared to be cruising toward victory after Watkins’s two first-half headers and Morgan Rogers struck early in the second half to put them 3-1 ahead.
But Sunderland scored twice — in the 86th and 87th minutes — when Trai Hume and Wilson Isidor capitalised on mistakes Villa made in possession.
Sunderland nearly completed an improbable comeback when Habib Diarra raced through, only to see Emiliano Martinez produce a fantastic save before Villa surged upfield, where Lucas Digne delivered a perfect cross for Abraham to score.
“What a position we are in, semi-final of European competition (Europa League) and pole position to qualify for top five. We can go and achieve what not many Aston Villa players have done for a long time,” Villa midfielder John McGinn said.
“When you see the difference of the two points big Tammy Abraham has added for us at the end, it’s huge for us. We knew how important this game was. It wasn’t perfect, but who cares at the end of the day?”
Villa boss Unai Emery was ecstatic but conceded they “lost our mind a little bit” when they conceded twice in one minute.
“But how we reacted at 3-3 to score the fourth goal was fantastic,” Emery added.
“We started this match with many objectives, one of them was to keep fourth, get an advantage on other teams and leave Sunderland further behind us.
“We did it, I am so happy with how we played.”