Official Everton Match ReportA moment of class by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a cooly-taken late penalty from Leighton Baines ensured the spoils were shared with a 1-1 draw between Everton and Manchester United at Goodison Park.
In a game full of drama - and after another below-par first half performance from the Blues - Ronald Koeman’s side thoroughly-deserved their eventual equaliser and, on another day, could have snatched all three points.
The result could have been different had Marcos Rojo been shown a red card for a studs up, two-footed challenge on Idrissa Gana Gueye just 16 minutes into the game, with replays emphasising that ought to have been the case.
Maarten Stekelenburg will have regretted running off his line to present Ibrahimovic with the chance to open the scoring, a brilliant finish by the Swedish talisman. De Gea’s, second-half stop to deny Kevin Mirallas, meanwhile, was almost on the same scale, a vital intervention which looked like it would secure a win for Jose Mourinho’s side.
But United’s resolve was eventually broken when substitute Marouane Fellaini conceded a penalty in the dying minutes and Baines confidently struck home from 12 yards for his first goal of the season to rescue a point.
Ronald Koeman had made three changes to the team that lost last weekend on the Everton manager’s return to Southampton, bringing in Ramiro Funes Mori, Tom Cleverley and Mirallas for Phil Jagielka, Ross Barkley and Aaron Lennon. Still smarting from that defeat and with United having won both Premier League games last season as well as the FA Cup semi-final encounter at Wembley, the Toffees had more incentive than the recent run of one win in eight Premier League games to claim a precious win.
Everton were quick out of the blocks, too. Yannick Bolasie broke free on the right and whipped in a deep cross which United captain Michael Carrick hooked away with Mirallas accelerating towards the back post. Mirallas took the corner kick which was headed clear by Rojo and another corner was quickly conceded, but it came to nothing.
Within minutes, United were lucky to still have 11 players on the pitch. Gana raced towards a loose ball and Rojo launched himself two-footed off the ground, clattering into the Senegalese international who could have been seriously injured. Referee Michael Oliver produced a yellow card, it should have been red – Rojo’s challenge was reckless, with studs showing - and a relieved United breathed even easier when the subsequent free-kick into the penalty area was met by Cleverley whose shot went high in the air and safely into the hands of De Gea.
Something better ought to have come from a swift counter-attack initiated by Romelu Lukaku’s rolling clear of Rojo and charging towards the penalty area before releasing Bolasie to the left of De Gea’s goal. Mirallas approached the back post but Bolasie put too much on the cross which went out across the far touchline for a throw. Everton’s play had plenty of bite and spite, however, and Phil Jones was forced to head clear from another Bolasie cross with Lukaku and Mirallas either side of him. More than half an hour in, there had still to be recorded a shot on target by either team but the game was not without incident.
United did threaten when Ibrahimovic cushioned the ball into Paul Pogba’s path and Funes Mori had to be vigilant to slide in and claim the ball with Henrikh Mkhitaryan poised to pounce in the penalty area. Then from nowhere they claimed the lead three minutes from the interval. Stekelenburg rushed off his line and Ibrahimovic, with a moment of ingenuity, hoisted the ball high over the advancing Everton goalkeeper, the ball came down off the underside of the crossbar and the inside of the upright before bouncing on the line and crossing it despite Funes Mori’s desperate lunge clear. The finish was superb by Ibrahimovic but the opportunity should not have been presented to him.
There was further brilliance by a United player at the start of the second half when De Gea saved defiantly with his right arm after Mirallas executed a swift one-two with Lukaku on the edge of the area before unleashing a powerful shot. A lesser goalkeeper than De Gea and it would probably have been an equalising goal.
Ibrahimovic attempted to strike again but was blocked by Funes Mori before Anthony Martial shot high over the crossbar from just outside the area. Mkhitaryan had a shot blocked by Seamus Coleman and Carrick crossed terrifically for Ander Herrera who rattled the woodwork with a thunderous strike. Gerard Deulofeu came off the bench for Cleverley as Koeman sought to find a way back into the game. Coleman departed with an injury soon after with Mason Holgate replacing the Republic of Ireland captain. Enner Valencia for Bolasie, who had also incurred an injury, completed the hat-trick of substitutions in rapid succession, two enforced.
Mirallas set up Gana, who was excellent again, for a rasping drive from 30 yards which De Gea parried away to safety. It was quickly followed by a free kick from Deulofeu and a looping header by Holgate which De Gea met by springing to his right and tipping over the crossbar.
The Blues were battling valiantly to salvage something from the game and Holgate’s whipped cross was headed down from only yards out but, alas, straight at De Gea.
Undeterred, the Toffees continued to venture forward in search of an equaliser and eventually got their reward two minutes from time. Substitute Marouane Fellaini, brought on to bolster the visitors’ midfield, had not touched the ball when he fouled Gana from behind inside the penalty area, with referee Oliver having no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Baines, who had been thwarted by De Gea from 12 yards - his only unsuccessful penalty for the Blues in the Premier League - in October 2014, stepped up and finished with aplomb into the bottom left corner.
Buoyed by an increasingly vocal Gwladys Street End, the Toffees pushed on for a winner and Baines went close again in added time, stinging the palms of De Gea with a 20-yard drive.
But that would be the end of the drama at Goodison, with a point probably the fair result at the end of this entertaining encounter.
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