Muntari at the double for Pompey

12 April 2012

Sulley Muntari's superb double strike helped secure a sixth successive away win for Portsmouth and earned them their first success at Aston Villa for 37 years, 3-1 the final score.

The £7million signing from Udinese gave Villa goalkeeper Scott Carson no chance with two stunning left-footed drives to double his goal tally for the campaign.

A Craig Gardner own goal had set Pompey on their way to victory and all the home side could muster in reply in this Barclays Premier League match was a late Gareth Barry penalty.

After eight minutes poor defending by Villa gifted the visitors the opener through a Gardner own goal. Kranjcar had a shot deflected over the bar by Olof Mellberg and the Croatian international took the corner himself and picked out Pedro Mendes on the edge of the box.

He did not appear to make a proper contact on his low ball into the danger area but Wilfred Bouma sliced his attempted clearance across the goal and Gardner, in attempting to deny Benjani, could only turn the ball past Scott Carson.

Sol Campbell did well to block a shot on the turn from John Carew before a stunning strike from Muntari doubled Portsmouth's lead after 39 minutes.

And after an hour Muntari scored another superb goal to put Portsmouth 3-0 ahead.

He dispossessed Reo-Coker in midfield and then surged forward before curling a left-footed drive past the despairing dive of Carson.

Barry pulled one back from the penalty spot for the home side after Distin was adjudged to have brought down Young but it was too little, too late for the home side.

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