Zigic and Larsson put Blues through

Nikola Zigic put Birmingham through to their first Carling Cup semi-final for nine years and earned his side revenge over Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier as the hard-fought 2-1 derby game was marred by ugly scenes at the end.

Thousands of Blues fans charged towards the Villa supporters and dozens of missiles and some flares were thrown before order was restored and City can expect to face Football Association action.

Zigic's deflected shot five minutes from time settled the tie after Gabriel Agbonlahor had cancelled out Sebastian Larsson's early penalty.

Houllier had been Liverpool manager when they defeated Blues in the 2001 final and Villa were the better side for long periods, but they were unable to deny City their first win over their local rivals for five-and-a-half years.

Villa were the first to settle and Zigic leared a goal-bound header from James Collins from a Stewart Downing corner, but then Birmingham took the lead against the run of play after 10 minutes through a Larsson penalty.

Cameron Jerome turned the ball into Lee Bowyer and he was brought down by Villa skipper Richard Dunne. Up stepped Larsson to drill a low penalty past Brad Friedel who went to his right.

After 30 minutes Agbonlahor struck at St Andrew's for the third successive game to bring his side back on level terms. Jonathan Hogg threaded the ball into the path of Agbonlahor and his low cross shot flew past Ben Foster into the corner of the net.

Bowyer took a knock and was struggling for several minutes before being replaced after 65 minutes by Craig Gardner.

Villa came close to taking the lead when Foster parried a shot from Stephen Ireland and then Ashley Young's follow-up effort was cleared off the line by Scott Dann. But with five minutes remaining Zigic's deflected shot put Birmingham back in front.

Jerome made a powerful run down the right and his low cross found Zigic whose shot deflected off Luke Young and looped over Friedel.