Leicester City 2 Aston Villa 3 <i>(aet)</i>: Late elation for Agbonlahor

Martin O'Neill saluted the performance of his former club Leicester City after Gabriel Agbonlahor's 119th-minute goal earned Aston Villa a place in the last 16 of the Carling Cup last night.

The game at the Walkers Stadium looked destined to go to penalties before Agbonlahor, from a narrow angle, earned Villa a 3-2 win.

The Foxes had twice come from behind to take the game into an extra 30 minutes. O'Neill, who managed Leicester for five years, winning the League Cup in 1997 and 2000, said: "I'm delighted we have won the game, but Leicester were magnificent this evening."

O'Neill admitted his side may have had been lucky with two penalties from referee Mark Clattenburg - Gareth Barry scored the first but the second was saved by Paul Henderson in second-half stoppage time. "In terms generous penalties, it looks as if things are favouring us," O'Neill said.

Leicester, unbeaten in seven League and cup matches, began brightly but after six minutes Villa went ahead through Juan Pablo Angel. Milan Baros found Agbonlahor on the right and he sent a low cross into Angel, who slid the ball past Henderson from six yards.

Leicester were showing plenty of fight and deserved their equaliser. Momo Sylla's inswinging 42nd-minute free-kick was half cleared and the ball broke to Iain Hume whose shot was beaten out by Stuart Taylor. But Richard Stearman reacted to score.

Then came Barry's first penalty, scored after Gareth McAuley was harshly judged to have fouled Stilian Petrov. But after 84 minutes Leicester were again level when Patrick Kisnorbo headed home a corner from Sylla at the near post.

Kisnorbo then held Chris Sutton, to give away Barry's unsuccessful penalty.

Leicester City (4-4-2): Henderson; Stearman, McAuley, Kisnorbo, Johansson; Maybury, Sylla, Wesolowski, Welsh; Hammond, Hume. Substitutes: Douglas, Kenton, Tiatto, Low, Odhiambo.

Aston Villa (4-3-3): Taylor; Hughes, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Barry; Osbourne, Petrov, Davis; Angel, Baros, Agbonlahor. Substitutes: Olejnik, Laursen, Bouma, Sutton, Agathe.

Referee: M Clattenburg (Co Durham)