Stubborn Everton finally succumbed to Manchester City in Cup quarter final

So that’s it and the chance to win a trophy has gone for another season as Everton finally succumbed to Manchester City in tonight’s FA Cup quarter final losing 2-0 at Goodison Park.

This was a resiliant and determined effort from Everton who fought really hard and created some decent chances themselves, but in the end the superior quality and finishing of the Premier League leaders proved too much.

Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti selected a side similar to the Merseyside derby team and one that was set up to defend and make it as hard as possible for the visitors to break them down.

He picked a team with Mason Hogate, Yerry Mina instead of Micheal Keane and Ben Godfrey at the back with Seamus Coleman and Lucas Digne flanking them.

In midfield he made something of a surprise decision bringing Andre Gomes in alongside Allan and Gylfi Sigurdsson instead of Tom Davies.

This was a little controversial as it might have been expected that Davies would line up with Allan to give the Toffees a bit of extra bite and competitivness in the middle.

But regardless Everton were strong, solid and resolute in the first half and while City controlled the ball right from the kick-off, as expected, they were never able to settle totally.

The Blues managed to offer some threat on a few of the rare occasions when they got the ball off their visitors with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison having half-chances but it was City who inevitably were creating most of the opportunities.

The best of these in the first half fell to Raheem Sterling (who otherwise struggled to have much impact on the match), but his shot was well saved by Everton’s young Portuguese keeper Joao Virginia who himself had a fine game.

Everton were defending very well and whenever it looked as though a City player might break through he was usually surrounded by royal blue shirts swarming to close him down. Both Mina and Godfrey were outstanding and Allan worked his socks off in front of them.

The Blues best chance was from a set-piece and had Mina taken it then who knows..? But his effort was stopped on the line and that was the Toffees best opportunity in the game to score.

As the second half wore on, Everton began to tire and City’s best and most influential player Phil Foden was playing superbly pulling the strings for the visitors.

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Foden is a huge talent and he’s fast becoming one of England’s most exciting footballers since at least Wayne Rooney’s emergence. His pace, movement, technical skill, vision and eye for goal make him some player already.

Although they were clinging on now it looked as though Everton might still hold on for extra time and then maybe even penalties.

However, now Pep Guardiola made use of that awsome squad depth at his disposal bringing on Rihad Mahrez and Kevin de Bruyne – not a bad couple of players to have on the bench!

Compare that kind of talent with the mixture of expensive and underachieving players and still raw and untested youngsters that made up the home team’s substitutes.

After relentless pressure now the Toffees backline was finally breached and Ilkay Gundogan broke the deadlock to be followed by a superb de Bruyne strike in the last few minutes.

Everton nearly did it, but in the end the gulf in class and depth of talent told. It’s frustrating to know that yet again the Blues are destined to end a season without a trophy and the seemingly endless wait for silverware continues.

But I don’t think any Evertonian would have expected their side to beat City tonight and the fact they made such a good fight of it is something I supppose. Now the team have to focus on making every effort to try and secure European qualification for next season.

Stubborn Everton finally succumb to City

By Matt Townsend | Mar 20, 2021

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