Fabian Delph in dreamland after win over Liverpool

Villa skipper Delph set up Christian Benteke's equaliser after Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring for the Reds and then rounded off a superb afternoon by sweeping home nine minutes into the second half to secure a 2-1 victory.

Delph's strike means that Tim Sherwood's charges will return to Wembley to face holders Arsenal in next month's showpiece and the former Leeds midfielder says it will be a dream come true.

"I can't wait for the final. To walk out as captain is going to be the highlight of my career. So happy days, I'm happy for the boys," he told BT Sport 1.

The 25-year-old England international reserved special praise for Sherwood for the job he has done since taking over in February when the club looked to be in deep trouble in the drop zone.

Big wins over West Brom, Sunderland and Tottenham in the league, as well as the cup run, since then have lifted the mood around Villa Park and Delph feels Sherwood deserves a lot of credit for the remarkable turnaround.

"The gaffer (Sherwood) is brilliant. He's positive with everybody. He doesn't panic. He's got a game plan and we stuck to it and there were a lot of young lads in the team," he said.

"Young Jack (Grealish) has come in today and done fantastic and we're just happy. We're thrilled for the fans."

Delph now feels they can use their cup run as a springboard to secure Barclays Premier League survival and is not worried the final will become a distraction.

"We're confident we'll come through it. We'll put that aside for today and honestly the next game we've got to think about is one in the Premier League," he added.