Man City (h) Substitute
The game plan was clear as soon as the teams were announced, but surprisingly Keane & Davies were on the bench. Coleman back in as a right wingback & Sigurdsson into midfield. It was 5-3-2 without the ball & 3-4-1-2 with the ball. The options or lack of them on Everton’s just underlined how threadbare it had gotten for Ancelotti.
As with the league game, the strength in depth & rotation options that City have is incredible. For me, I haven’t seen a Premier League team be able to make so many changes to a starting 11 with no drop off in quality or intensity since mid to late 90’s Man Utd. And they won everything, as is likely City will.
For all of the visitors quality & possession Everton were fairly comfortable for the first half. City were always going to have the majority of the ball & territorial advantage but Virginia remained fairly untested. Sterling tried his luck from distance after a very slick passing move from the left, the shot straight at Virginia from just outside the box.
Soon after Richarlison had a speculative overhead kick that went over the bar & then the best chance for both sides in the half, a fantastic corner by Digne was headed on by Mina at the near post, but was headed off the line by Zinchenko.
Fernandinho allowed 1 minute of additional time, it was very kind of Michael Oliver to allow the Brazilian to referee the game, especially overlooking a clear elbow on Richarlison. Although he was obviously paying attention when City ventured into Everton’s half, as he had the whistle to his mouth ready to blow for the most innocuous of challenges, laughably Allan got booked for far less than anyone else. HT 0-0 So far so good.
No changes & a familiar pattern to the first half. A Sigurdsson freekick was swung in from deep & met by Mina, the half clearance fell to Richarlison who couldn’t get his body position right & he shot just wide. Immediately City went on that attack.
Fernandinho took a break from reffing to drive through midfield & played a 1-2 with Sterling, Fernandinho crossed from the byline to Sterling who shot from the D & angled the ball to the left of Virginia, Sterling was actually running away in celebration but then saw Virginia get fingers tips on the ball & turn it wide. A brilliant save & brilliant confidence booster for the young keeper to settle any nerves.
Mahrez came on for the Sterling, Ian Darke in commentary more than happy to move on from “Gabriel Jesus has scored 7 in 7 vs Everton” to “Mahrez has 4 goals vs Everton” Thanks Ian, stick to Boxing mate, your quite good at that. Football, not so good. I wont waste your time mentioning the other 2 imbeciles sat next to him.
City were moving through the gears now, Allan & Gomes were doing a great job in pressing the City midfield & winning the ball back in the corners that City had dragged them into. Coleman covered Holgate superbly, Digne had been great vs Foden & then Mahrez. Everton couldn’t get out for the majority of the last 20 minutes, but they were coping with City. Mina & Godfrey as a pairing were very slick in dealing with balls in behind & set pieces that City had, Godfrey in particular was showing all the reasons why it was a farce he along with Keane were not selected by the FA puppet Southgate. Waistcoated clown.
The selfless running from Dom & Richarlison had started to take its toll, any ball played forward was chased & battled for admirably but City appeared to have 2 players on them, one to challenge & one to take the ball & move. Then the best player in the league comes on.
Like the league cup game vs Man Utd, it was the bench that won the game that night & it was to be the same again, albeit Everton were far more competitive this night. Laporte came striding out from the back & got to the edge of the box, he fired the ball sideways close to the spot where Sterling had tested Virginia earlier & De Bruyne touched the ball & managed to squeeze it passed the onrushing Mina back to Laporte who had continued his run. Laporte’s shot was brilliantly tipped onto the crossbar by Virginia & bounced out towards the penalty spot. Gundogan had ghosted passed Gomes & got the ball before Godfrey to head in. 0-1 it was harsh on Everton, the game plan had been been executed perfectly until that point.
Holgate came off for Iwobi as Everton tried to be more forceful through the lines. But as is with Iwobi, his sideways running did very little to move his side forward. A frustrated Gomes was lucky to escape a second booking from the oh so willing to please Michael Oliver.
The game was finally ended when Mina went in with his head bravely vs Mahrez’s raised boot, the awful Oliver put the whistle to his mouth to blow for a foul & then decided it wasn’t, the ball falls to City’s third substitute Rodri who lifted it forward & De Bruyne was onto it, the recovery pace shown by Ben Godfrey to be even close to getting anything on the shot was incredible, but De Bruyne lashed it passed Virginia for 0-2 & that was that. FT 0-2
There’s no player that started that game for Everton tonight that was below a 7/10, the game plan was carried out perfectly & just as I mentioned with the league cup game, it was quality off the bench that won the game in both ties. It’s these games where we as a crowd play our part in helping the team, that was badly missing tonight. You must & have to admire City for their ruthlessness, they are stone cold killers when the right time comes for them in a game. Only Bayern Munich will stop them from winning it all this season.
It’s as clear as day what Everton need & they will get it, I don’t think it’ll be solved in 1 transfer window, but the foundations are laid for this team. Now the concentration falls solely on the league & our biggest 10 game run since 2014. I’ll take any form of European competition we can get our hands on, I’m not fussy or proud, I’m an Evertonian & my club needs to be & should be in as many competitions as is available.
Enjoy your 2 week break from all of this. April 5th seems a long way away & plenty of recovery time for us & the players.
UTFT COYB 💙