Nigeria’s duo of Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfried Ndidi failed to inspire Leicester City to League Cup final following their 1-2 loss to Aston Villa on Tuesday night.
Villa’s Trezeguet scored a dramatic late winner to reach the final with a 3-2 aggregate win.
Five-times winners Villa will face either Manchester United or Manchester City, who play in the other semifinal on Wednesday.
Leicester could only manage a 1-1 draw in the first leg at the King Power Stadium and came they came out firing with James Maddison coming close twice in the opening minutes in search of a spot in the Wembley final.
Despite the early chances for Leicester, it was Aston Villa that took the early lead when Jack Grealish set up Matt Targett to smash a shot past Kasper Schmeichel to make it 1-0.
Leicester scored a deserved equaliser after the break with Iheanacho smashing home at the back post from a nice Harvey Barnes assist to set up a tense closing 15 minutes to the cup tie.
With the match seemingly headed to a draw in regulation time, Trezeguet popped up at the back post and volleyed home to send the Villa fans into wild celebrations as their team returned to the League Cup final for the first since losing to Manchester United in the 2010 final.
Villa have struggled in the Premier League and sit 16th in the table, two points above the relegation zone, but fought well against their third-placed opponents in both legs of the semi-final.
Smith handed new signing Mbwana Samatta, a Tanzania international forward, his debut but Brendan Rodgers left Leicester’s talismanic striker Jamie Vardy on the bench after injury.
Vardy was brought on after 56 minutes but found it hard to get involved and Villa might have doubled their lead but Samatta could not reach Grealish’s inviting cross.
Iheanacho levelled when he tucked home Harvey Barnes’ low cross after 72 minutes, and the game seemed destined for penalties.
Yet in the third minute of four added on Ahmed Elmohamady launched a dangerous ball into the area and Trezeguet coolly finished to send Villa to Wembley.
Iheanacho, Ndidi to miss League Cup final
