Zimbabwean midfield general Marvelous Nakamba made his long-awaited first start for Aston Villa.
He was in the starting XI for Villa as they lost 1-2 to Premier League title chasing Liverpool on Tuesday evening at Villa Park.
Manager Steven Gerrard recalled Nakamba to the starting line up alongside Philippe Coutinho for the Premier League encounter.
Nakamba had not started a game for Villa since the club’s narrow 1-0 defeat to the Reds at Anfield in mid-December when he got injured.
Coutinho came in for Emi Buendía, who found the net at Turf Moor, as Gerrard made two changes from the weekend.
Calum Chambers was named on the bench alongside Buendía, while there was also a place for Ben Chrisene in the matchday 20.
Villa had an impressive start to the game as Douglas Luiz put the hosts ahead.
However, Cameroonian Joel Matip equalized and Senegal’s Sadio Mane snatched the late winner for Liverpool.
Villa are on 11th place and they have three games to go whereas Liverpool sit second at par on points with leaders Manchester City who face Wolves this evening.
Starting Line-Ups:
Villa: Martinez, Digne, Mings, Cash, Konsa, Luiz, Nakamba, Coutinho, McGinn, Ings, Watkins.
Liverpool: Alisson, Tsimikas, van Dijk, Matip, Alexander-Arnold, Jones, Keïta, Fabinho, Jota, Díaz, Mané.
Subs: Kelleher, Konaté, Gomez, Firmino, Salah, Thiago, Milner, Origi, Henderson.