Dynamo Kiev 5 Everton 2: VerdictBlues barged off the road to Warsaw
IN the end, Everton were barged off the road to Warsaw.
Their slim advantage from the first-leg was steam-rolled by Dynamo Kiev who went speeding into the quarter-finals of the Europa League after a rampant performance.
And by doing so they left Everton’s hopes of making it into the last eight of a European competition for the first time in 30 years in tatters.
By full-time it had officially turned into rout and what began as a tie in their favour developed into an embarrassingly one-sided affair.
Dynamo will take some stopping, especially with their fortress at the Olympic Stadium looking as strong as ever, but the gnawing frustration is that Everton had got themselves back in the driving seat when Romelu Lukaku scored his eighth – and most spectacular – goal of the competition.
But the Blues soon lost their footing once again as goals two and three arrived in sickeningly quick and easy fashion.
Kiev’s fourth and fifth of the night extinguished any hope of a fightback and their spectacular fifth just piled on the misery thousands of miles from home.
Everton refused to let their European adventure fizzle out altogether and Phil Jagielka nodded home a consolation goal near the end.
If you can actually call it a consolation because there was nothing of comfort here.
It didn’t appear to be the weight of history dragging Roberto Martinez’s side down here in Ukraine but their habit of making life hard for themselves.
Everton held a slender lead heading into the second leg after a stirring come-from-behind win at Goodison seven days’ earlier but the fear was their soft under-belly would be exposed in Kiev’s fortress.
And so it proved as the Blues’ shipped five goals for the first time since that chastising night in Benfica in 2009.
Four of Kiev’s goals were painful to watch as Everton imploded. The fifth was a rocket of a strike that rubbed salt into gaping wounds.
The defensive inquest will no doubt centre around the inclusion of Antolin Alcaraz ahead of John Stones. When composure was a priority he lost all of his, but then he was hardly alone in that regard. It was just that his mistakes were the most telling.
Exiting the Europa League like this hurts. It is not only the sobering 5-2 scoreline and the slapstick defending but the fact that Everton had history in their sights – and the talent to reach it.
But dreams of a first quarter-final in Europe since the class of ‘85 have been destroyed and as the Evertonians were made to wait inside the stadium after the final whistle – stewing and smarting – they would be left with the feeling that not just their campaign on the continent, but their season as a whole has ground to a halt.
Premier League survival is still to be secured, of course, and a crucial trip to Queens Park Rangers is up next, but it was this journey in the Europa League that had offered this suffering set of supporters reason for some cheer this term.
There was none of that here.
If truth be told, the hope of any was thin on the ground by half-time.
After their soft underbelly was exposed not once, not twice but three times in a frenzied first-half the Blues knew exactly the clear - if unenviable - task they faced in the second half in order to stay in the competition.
Simply, they were not up to it.
Score once more and don’t concede another and this Everton side would have been through to the last eight.
But given the way they had unravelled in the first-half that always looked a tall order.
Kiev, roared on by their fully charged fans, were everything they threatened to be and found themselves in the driving seat in this tie at the break.
Behind and then level in a four minute spell after Lukaku brilliantly hit the top corner, the Blues’ composure deserted them.
Kiev struck twice in two minutes to establish a 4-3 lead in the tie and left Everton looking like a side that could crumble at any point.
The home fans need little encouragement to make this place hostile for visiting teams but by the time of the third goal it was rocking to its very foundations.
What Everton could not afford to do was drop any deeper. They could not allow themselves to retreat under the weight of Dynamo pressure as it only encouraged a rampant home side.
As Martinez has said in the build-up, they simply could not afford to let Kiev dictate.
Unfortunately, for too long, Everton did and they soon had their grip on tie removed.
By the time Oleg Gusev, who had also scored at Goodison, made it 4-1 on the night the hope the 800 or so Everton fans had travelled with quickly faded away.
The players, to their credit, refused to give in and first Christian Atsu, and then Ross Barkley, were denied by the Kiev keeper and the post but when the fifth goal went in so did any lingering belief that Everton were still in the competition.
Jagielka’s header was a mere footnote in a game that will live long in the memory for all the wrong reasons.
