Aston Villa booked their place in the Carling Cup final after an astonishing semi-final second-leg at Villa Park saw them claim a 6-4 win against Blackburn Rovers, which gave them victory 7-4 on aggregate.
A Nikola Kalinic brace had Rovers ahead, but Stephen Warnock slotted in before Christopher Samba saw red.
James Milner converted the subsequent penalty and a Steven Ngonzi own-goal and Gabriel Agbonlahor and Emile Heskey's strikes seemed to seal it.
Volleys from Martin Olsson and Brett Emerton gave Rovers hope before Ashley Young curled home to wrap up the win.
After 26 minutes Blackburn moved ahead on aggregate. Morten Gamst Pedersen had time to send over a left-wing cross and, although Guzan did well to keep out Olsson's close-range header, Kalinic converted the rebound.
Villa were given a lifeline in controversial fashion by Warnock four minutes
later. Agbonlahor clearly pushed Rovers skipper Ryan Nelsen to the ground as Young's right wing cross found its way through a ruck of players to former Blackburn player Warnock - who powered the ball into the roof of the net from close range. Rovers' protests to referee Martin Atkinson were in vain.
Villa started to gain some momentum and five minutes before half-time Heskey's pass was chased down by Agbonlahor, who was brought down in the box by Samba - who was clearly the last defender and given a straight red card by Atkinson.
Milner ensured Villa regained the aggregate lead by hammering the penalty past Paul Robinson for his eighth goal of the campaign.
Villa were now in the ascendancy and in first half injury-time Robinson parried aside a fierce drive from Villa skipper Stiliyan Petrov.
Villa dominated the opening stages of the second half and after 53 minutes an own goal from Nzonzi put them ahead on the night and 4-2 on aggregate - Carlos Cuellar flicked on a corner from Stewart Downing and Nzonzi turned the ball past Robinson under pressure from Dunne.
Three minutes later Villa struck again with a shot from Milner deflected by the chest of Agbonlahor past a stranded Robinson.
Villa were now rampant and after 62 minutes Blackburn cracked again as Heskey beat the offside trap after collecting a pass from Milner and he coolly rounded Robinson before netting.
Olsson made it 5-3 with a spectacular scissor-kick from Gael Givet's centre, before Robinson turned aside a header from Heskey and came off his line to deny Agbonlahor.
With six minutes remaining Emerton's volley crept under the body of a partially unsighted Guzan to further eat into Villa's lead - but Young had the final say in injury-time as he curled the ball wide of Robinson into the corner of the goal.
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