Everton 1 – 1 AS Roma
Everton welcome AS Roma to Goodison Park on Saturday for the final pre-season friendly before the Premer League starts next week.
In what might have been a celebration of new ownership under Dan Friedkin, that has now fallen flat since Friedkin pulled out of his bid to buy Moshiri’s shares in Everton last month. But the friendly with his Serie A team goes ahead on Saturday, kicking off at 5:00 pm.
Sean Dyche has been ultra-cautious in his handling of possible player injuries, with a number of players being withdrawn from pre-season action to help ensure minor niggles do not become bigger problems. But that was unavoidable with Youssef Chermiti, who suffered a foot injury in training that required surgery, while Nathan Patterson extends his recovery period.
The other player recovering from surgery is Jarrad Branthwaite, who had work done on a groin problem early in pre-season, which he has entirely missed. The defence is also missing Michael Keane with what Dyche described as “a minor issue”.
Dele Alli continues his long road back to fitness, working with Everton at Finch Farm even though his contract has expired. James Garner is also absent from today’s squad.
But Jordan Pickford finally returns in goal in place of Joao Virginia who has played in all pre-season games so far, after the England goalkeeper returned to Finch Farm on Monday following his post-Euros break.
No places for Tyrer, Campbell or Metcalfe among the subs as Dyche cuts the number on the bench down to 10.
Roma kicked off and kept possession for almost 2 minutes. From an Everton corner, Roma broke and played a great ball in behind O’Brien but Dovbyk could only role his shot across and wide of goal.
After some decent play by Everton that failed to create a clear chance, Roma came closer to scoring again with a nicely worked ball across the penalty area. At the other end a deep cross to the far post was just a bit too deep for Clvert-Lewn to reach.
Worryingly, on the half-hour, Seamus Coleman limped off, to be replaced by Ashley Young. Dyche later confided “He’s nicked his calf but we’re not sure how serious it is. At the moment, it doesn’t look too serious but we’ll have to wait and see when it settles.”
But third time was a charm for Roma, putting a great diagonal ball behind the Everton defence for Pellergrini to control it superbly and roll it past Pickford to open the scoring before the break.
There were no changes for Everton as they kicked off the second half. But there was little of note before the hour, with McNeil wasting an advanced free-kick opportunity.
But then, out of nothing, Dominic Calvert-Lewin brilliantly pulled off his marker to create space, picked up the ball and rolled his man before making the Roma keeper commit himself to create space at the near post for him to lash in an Exocet of a shot that almost tore the net off its stanchions.
Then, on as a sub, Iliman Ndiaye spun brilliantly to fire a shot just inside the post that was incredibly fingertipped past the post by the Roma keeper. Calvert-Lewin almost scored again as he tried to flick the ball over the advancing keeper, who got a hand to it.
Ndiaye drove Everton forward with pace and played it out to Harrison whose low shot was saved. At the other end, some wonderful passing saw a great shot from Roma that Pickford saved down low.
Beto and Lindstrøm tried to drive Everton to a win in the last 10 minutes but it was not to be and the big crowd left Goodison Park with memories of that stunning Calvert-Lewin goal giving them a wonderful warm feeling ahead of the new season which starts next week.
Everton: Pickford; Mykolenko, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Coleman (32′ Young) McNeil (62′ Lindstrøm), Gueye, Iroegbunam (80′ Armstrong), Doucoure (62′ Ndiaye), Harrison; Calvert-Lewin (80′ Beto).
Subs not Used: Virginia, Crellin, Holgate, Maupay, Dixon.
Attendance: 31,324