Everton Under-21s lose penalty shoot out against Leicester

Everton Under-21s bowed out of the Premier League International Cup after losing on penalties to Leicester City following a 2-2 draw.

The result was harsh on the young Blues, who were the better side in extra time and had a plethora of chances throughout the 120 minutes.

In fact it was the visitors who took the lead. With just 10 minutes on the clock, Liam Walsh played the ball out wide to left-back Antonee Robinson and his cross was fired home by Chris Long.

But Leicester hit back through Harry Panayiotou 11 minutes later as the Foxes’ forward fired in after the Blues failed to deal with a corner.

Back came the Toffees and when a flowing move found David Henen in the left-hand channel, the Belgian tried to bend the ball around Adam Smith and into the corner. Unfortunately for the striker, his effort was deflected wide.

Panayiotou was making a nuisance of himself and very nearly put his side ahead on 37 minutes. A free-kick was nodded back into the danger zone but the Foxes forward’s volley failed to trouble Russell Griffiths.

After the break, Anthony Knockaert went close then Walsh and Jonjoe Kenny cleared off the line within seconds of each other.

Everton were robbed of Long’s services as he suffered a gash to the thigh and had to be replaced.

But Walsh struck the bar with a free-kick, then had another superbly saved by Foxes keeper Smith as the Blues continued to press for a winner.

Extra time was required and it was City who struck four minutes into the extra half hour, Panayiotou grabbing his second after smashing home following a corner.

Everton's character and heart had been tested but they showed plenty of fight and hit back through sub Harry Charsley, who finished coolly, clipping over the sprawling Smith.

But even an extra 30 minutes couldn’t separate the sides.

After Ryan Ledson, Kieran Dowell and Walsh had all scored, a superb Griffiths save gave the Blues the chance to take advantage in the shoot-out, but skipper Kenny then saw his well-hit spot-kick saved.

Tyias Browning saw his penalty saved after Leicester had made it 3-3 and Griffiths was beaten by their fifth to dump Everton out of the competition at the quarter final stage.