It's once again an ungodly hour of 4am and I'd missed the first half. Yawn! Everton brings a one-goal advantage to Sporting and that means that all the other team had to do was to put in a full 90 minutes of attack, and attack they did. Wave after wave of Sporting's attack seemed to have left the Toffees breathless.
Sporting also seemed to be fighting for every ball ferociously, spreading play across the field while going in hard from the centre. So far, Everton has been on defending mode and the back four have handled pretty well, keeping their opponent away from Howard's goal post.
The time that Sporting went pass Everton was through a free kick but the goal post was there to prevent the ball from going in. Sporting 0-0 Everton.
Everton started the second half defending once again. But just at the start, Sanderos seemed to pull a thigh muscle and this allowed Jag to make his first appearance of the season after a terribly long 10-month layoff through injury. Welcome back Jag!
To be fair, the Sporting boys looked much more creative with all their flowing runs and passes. Everton was totally exposed in the 59th minute with a pin-point cross that saw a marauding player striking the ball towards goal. Howard stood strong to pull off a stupendous save. Bily is being replaced by Rodwell.
Everton had a chance to counter attack in the 62nd minute. A high pass from Donovan, brought down by Saha who laid it for Pienaar but his curler was way off.
Sporting came back even stronger to score a goal! Sporting 1-0 Everton. If the score stays as this, Everton is out of the competition. Everton now have to press the game. Final throw of the dice, Yak comes in for Donovan.
Saha received a good ball whose point blank shot was saved by the opposing goalkeeper. Everton is down by two goal in the 75th minute. We are in the dumps! Sporting 2-0 Everton.
In injury time, Everton conceded the third goal with a wonderful run and a lovely strike that saw Everton collapse in defeat. We played so defensively that we could not come out of our shell to attack. It's Moyes who chooses the tactics. We can't blame him for trying to protect the one-goal advantage.
Anyway, end of the Europa League run. Guess we just have to move along and concentrate on the Premier League now.
Score: Sporting Lisbon 3-0 Everton
Scorer: Nil
Assist: Nil
Subs: Jag, Rodwell Yak
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