EVERTON  5  (3)  TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR  4  (2)      (4-4 at 90 minutes)
Date : –  10th February 2021 Kick off : –  20.15
Competition : –  FA Cup Fifth Round Venue : –  Goodison Park
Crowd : –  0,000
Referee : –  David Coote (Nottinghamshire) Linesmen : – Mr. Lee Betts; Mr. Nick Hopton
Fourth official : –  Martin Atkinson
VAR official : –  Chris Kavanagh VAR Assistant : –  Stephen Child
Weather : –  Cold, dry
Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the Gwladys Street end
Playing time : –   90 + 10 minutes plus 30 minutes extra time + 5 minutes added time

 

EVERTON TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
GOAL-SCORERS
    Calvert-Lewin  35m 16s   Sanchez  03m 00s
    Richarlison  37m 50s   Lamela  45+2m 30s
    Sigurdsson  (p)  42m 42s   Sanchez  56m 11s
    Richarlison  67m 52s   Kane  82m 46s
    Bernard  96m 28s  
CARDS
  Sigurdsson (foul on Moura) 47   Dele (simulation) 88
  Mina (foul on Son) 66   Kane (foul on Davies) 93
  Richarlison (foul on Son) 90+2   Winks (foul on Coleman) 99
  Digne (foul on Kane) 93    
 

 

EVERTON TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
33.   Robin OLSEN 1.   Hugo LLORIS (c)
     
22.   Ben GODFREY 2.   Matt DOHERTY  ( 17.  Moussa SISSOKO  98)
13.   Yerry MINA    4.   Toby ALDERWEIRELD
5.   Michael KEANE 6.   Davinson SANCHEZ   
12.   Lucas DIGNE     ( 4.   Mason HOLGATE  107) 33.   Ben DAVIES  
     
16.   Abdoulaye DOUCOURE 5.   Pierre-Emile HOJBJERG
26.   Tom DAVIES 28.   Tanguy NDOMBELE    (  8.   Harry WINKS  90  )
     
17.   Alex IWOBI  ( 20.   BERNARD  70  ) 11.   Erik LAMELA    ( 45.  Carlos VINICIUS  98)
10.   Gylfi SIGURDSSON  (c)  (p)    27.   Lucas MOURA  ( 20.   DELE Alli  77   )
7.   RICHARLISON      23.   Steven BERGWIJN  ( 10.    Harry KANE  53    )
     
9.   Dominic CALVERT-LEWIN    ( 23.   Seamus COLEMAN    55) 7.   Heung-Min SON
Substitutes Substitutes
31.   Joao VIRGINIA 12.   Joe HART
53.   Harry TYRER 25.   Japhet TANGANGA
18.   Niels NKOUNKOU 14.   Joe RODON
62.   Tyler ONYANGO 15.   Eric DIER

 

Manager : –  Carlo Ancelotti Manager : –  Jose Mourinho
Kit Supplier : –  Hummel Kit Supplier : –  Nike
Shirt Sponsor : –  Cazoo Shirt Sponsor : –  AIA
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  Cinch
Colours : –
Colours : – 

Navy Blue socks worn

Images of kits courtesy of the marvellous Colours of Football website

 

MATCH REPORT

In what was a crazy match with goals galore, it was Tottenham’s failings in defending a lead that caused their exit from the FA Cup at the Fifth Round stage at the hands of Everton, going out 4-5 at Goodison Park.

Spurs should really have wrapped the match up in the first half hour, when they dominated and hit the target regularly, but the failure to kill off the match once more came back to bite us.

Tottenham started like a steam train and could have been ahead on 50 seconds. Moving the ball quickly, it went to the left wing and Steven Bergwijn crossed to Erik Lamela, whose header was well saved down to his right by Olsen. He palmed the ball out in front of goal and Lucas Moura got to it, but he could only shoot over the bar, as it came to him off balance.

As Everton couldn’t cope with the tempo Spurs had set, they were on the back foot, Bergwijn won another corner on the Spurs left. Son played the ball in and rising high above Sigurdsson and Calvert-Lewin, Davinson Sanchez headed the ball wide of Olsen to give Spurs the lead with three minutes gone.  It was a clever piece of movement by the defender, who stepped away from goal and found himself on the six-yard line putting his header in a place where the keeper could not reach. Off the ball, Richarlison went down when the ball was in the net, vainly hoping that VAR might spot something that would rule the goal out. He is such an obnoxious cheat and a player who would rank along the likes of certain former Leicester players as all that the game shouldn’t have to put up with. 

The home players were struggling to match Tottenham with their football, so started rough-house tactics, as Tom Davies recklessly ran into Ndombele without looking at the ball. Tanguy needed a fair bit of treatment on a back injury before being able to carry on and Calvert-Lewin took Hojbjerg down off the ball. Then unsurprisingly, Richarlison went down looking for a free-kick, but David Coote was having none of it.  Spurs did have a bit if defending to do, with Sanchez blocking a Richarlison shot, then Lloris dived low to his left to beat out a shot from Godfrey. A cross from the Everton left slipped past a couple of Spurs defenders, leaving Calvert-Lewin open at the far post and his shot was partially blocked by Ben Davies and Hugo had to react to push the ball onto his left-hand post.

Working the ball forward from the back with Tanguy taking it forward, Lamela played it right to Doherty and his low measured ball back to Son brought a shot that Olsen did well to push over the bar in the 25th minute. The Swedish keeper was called into action again when Lamela drove a low shot at goal that Olsen got down to his right to hold. The keeper stopped Bergwijn’s low effort when Moura ran at the defence, playing it to Son, whose shot was blocked and fell kindly to the Dutchman. When Everton gave the ball away just inside the Spurs half, Stevie ran away with it and set up Son, but this time his shot came off Keane and spiralled just over the bar. From the corner, Calvert-Lewin got his head to it and the ball looped just over again.

The missed chances were costly when Tottenham couldn’t play the ball out and the ball was handed to Everton by Hojbjerg and the ball was moved quickly, bouncing nicely for Calvert-Lewin to drive a shot from ten yards out that Hugo couldn’t keep out. It hadn’t looked on the cards, but one mistake by Spurs had handed them a way back into the match.

And it was one that they made the most of with Calvert-Lewin flicking a pass into him to his right and Richarlison took the ball to Toby’s right and then drove low past Lloris’ right hand as the pace of the ball beat him off the pitch. There was no way we should have been behind, but the way that Spurs had started should have had the Toffees further behind than just the one goal.

Things got even worse when Calvert-Lewin went down as Hojbjerg ran alongside him and VAR had a long look at it, but a penalty was the outcome. Sigurdsson took the spot-kick and slotted it to the right as Hugo went the wrong way.  Three goals in just over seven minutes !  It was a ridiculous score-line considering the way the first 30 minutes went, but the way we crumbled and only a rush from his line stopped Richarlison making things even worse, as Sanchez nearly presented the Everton striker with another opportunity.

When Erik Lamela ran at the home defence he played a one-two with Son and the return pass should have been cut out by Mina, but it ran for the Spurs man to fire past Olsen from the left side of the goal to reduce the score-line with the last kick of the first half.  Realistically, Spurs were lucky to be going in only one behind and although it is always psychologically a good time to score, it only wiped away a little of the sloppiness that had seen them fall behind when looking good. The real psychological blow would come with whoever scored the next goal, which  would give that side an advantage both in the score-line and in mentality.

The half started with an Everton free-kick being cleared and Sigurdsson making a “tactical” foul as Moura ran past him for a booking with a minute after the restart. Seven minutes later, Mourinho brought Kane on for Bergwijn, while an injury to Calvert-Lewin brought Coleman into the game.  Enlivened by Kane’s introduction, Son went wide on the left and fired a low ball into the six yard box, but it was cleared from in front of the goal for a corner on the Tottenham left. Son again swept the ball in and Alderweireld won a header like Sanchez did for his goal, but Olsen saved it, only for the ball to drop to Davinson Sanchez to poke over the line from a couple of yards out, making it 3-3.  It was another goal from a corner and one that Tottenham were more alert to, as Sanchez reacted despite being held by a defender.

Sigurdsson volleyed Digne’s pull back over the bar, just after Richarlison went down in the box looking for another penalty. I really worry that the Brazilian striker will suffer badly with arthritis in later years, all the rolling around on the wet grass that he does.  Kane had a couple of shots blocked and then Mina dragged his studs down Son’s ankle with a nasty tackle after the ball had gone, with a yellow card given by the referee.  Sigurdsson pass outside Sanchez freed Richarlison in the box, with his shot from a narrow angle on the left going across Lloris to find the net and put Everton ahead once again at 4-3. There had been a foul on Ndombele in the lead up to the goal but VAR would not review it.

With seventeen minutes left, a Spurs corner was flapped at by the keeper and Erik Lamela fired a shot that he could not keep down as he fell to meet the ball on the bounce and then Keane had a free header in the aftermath of a free-kick that was straight at Lloris. Tottenham took the ball to the other end and Kane’s cross was touched on by Son, with a clearance by a defender going for a corner, when it could have gone anywhere.

Sanchez looked like he had shoved Richarlison over in the box, but having spent a lot of time going down in the box, David Coote was unimpressed. A couple of Spurs corners came to nothing and when the third came in, Olsen mis-punched the ball and Lamela hit a volley that Dacoure headed off the line without not knowing much about it. The ball was played to the left wing for Son, who jinked to the line and played a perfect cross to the far post, where Harry Kane dived in to head another equaliser.

Dele came on and got booked for diving – an interesting decision by the referee in light of Richarlison’s antics. Harry tried his luck from outside the box after Son played it to him, but this time the ball swerved away from the top corner of the goal. Son also tried a curler in the final minute of normal time but didn’t get enough on it to hit the target. Five more minutes was announced and two minutes in, Richarlison pulled back Son as he thought Everton ought to have had a free-kick and got booked. Kane took a shot from the free-kick that was 35 yards out, but only hit the wall. Another booking for each side was the only action before Spurs won a late, late corner and this one was headed out to take the game into extra time.

With Sanchez and Richarlison both on hat-tricks and lots of players on yellow cards, there was still lots of incident to come and a change at the start of the additional 30 minutes brought Harry Winks on to replace Tanguy Ndombele, who limped away to the dressing room.

From a throw-in five minutes into the first period of extra time, Kane took Lamela’s drag back to engineer a shooting position and Olsen beat his effort away, then in the second phase of that move Lamela had a shot that was half-blocked and was easy for Olsen to gather.  Winks lost the ball and when it came to Sigurdsson, he turned on it to lift the ball over the Spurs defence to provide Bernard with the chance to drive the ball across Lloris from the same position as where Richarlison scored from. At 5-4, could Spurs come back again ?

Well, they couldn’t in the first half of extra time. So, there was 15 minutes left to salvage this FA Cup campaign and Mina threw a sliding block in the box as Kane struck Sissoko’s low ball in and then Everton broke with Sigurdsson hitting a shot that swerved and Hugo had to beat out, leaving Richarlison fuming as he thought he should have received a pass. Keane then headed a free-kick narrowly wide as the game was getting stretched as Spurs looked for the equaliser and Everton looking for the goal that might clinch the game.

Richarlison gave the ball away outside his own box and Holgate then went through Vinicius to give away a free-kick just outside the box and the ball was put down in a central position. Kane took it and it beat the wall but hit Vinicius. Davies pushed his arm towards the ball as it hit the wall but VAR decided that it wasn’t a penalty after so many dodgy ones have been given.

Spurs battled to win the ball in midfield and to win another corner, which was cleared to Hojbjerg, but his shot went all the way from the right across the box to Son, who had taken the corner, but the Everton defence held out. Kane rose to meet Winks’ cross, but put his header wide and too far ahead of Son, who was chasing it in. 

Another corner, in the last minute of extra time and it was headed out by Keane to Winks, who hit a volley that went way wide. That was the last opportunity and Spurs exited in the most unusual of circumstances.

It might have been so different if we had made more of the pressure we put on the Everton goal in the first 30 minutes.  

Terry Pope

 

MATCH NOTES

Harry Kane’s goal moved him second to Jimmy Greaves in Tottenham’s all-time goal-scorers with 209.

 

OTHER RESULTS
Burnley 0 AFC Bournemouth 2
Manchester United 1 West Ham United London 0
Sheffield United 1 Bristol City 0
Leicester City 1 Brighton & Hove Albion 0
Swansea City 1 Manchester City 3
Barnsley 0 Chelsea 1
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 South Coast Big Club 2