Clinical Blues Tame the German Wolves

Europa League football returned to Goodison Park under the lights and Everton marked its return with a superb result against Bundesliga side Wolfsburg, becoming the only English side to overcome German opposition in European competition this week.

The performance may not have quite hit the heights that the 4-1 scoreline suggests but take nothing away from the Blues who kept Wolfsburg at bay with a combination of impressive defending and goalkeeping and then clinically despatched them with superior finishing in the final third.

Pleasingly, Roberto Martinez had named an unchanged line-up, opting for continuity over squad rotation and he was rewarded by his players who scored two goals in each half to put the game beyond the visitors' reach before Ricardo Rodriguez fired home an impressive consolation from a direct free kick.

It was a margin of victory that had looked unlikely in the early going. Wolfsburg had clearly been instructed to come out and press Everton with a high line which left the Blues hemmed into the own half for the first few minutes as they sized the opposition up.

When they had the ball, the Germans looked to move it quickly through Kevin de Bruyne and Aaron Hunt in the middle, with Ivica Olic and Rodriguez providing a threat from wide on the left. They would find Everton and John Stones (one rare error early on aside) in particular in obdurate mood, though, and once the home side had settled, they scored thanks to a really well-worked expression of passing football to scythe through Wolfsburg's defence.

Leighton Baines, James McCarthy and Steven Naismith's rapid interchange of passes ended with Baines overlapping on the left and his low cross was turned goalward by the Scot where goalkeeper Diego Benaglio appeared to get a toe on it, only for the ball rebounde off Rodriguez and into the net. It was a goal that deserved an Everton name next to it on the scoresheet but the lead was the important thing and the Blues had it.

That was followed by a fairly comfortable pattern whereby Wolfsburg saw plenty of possession but were largely denied the opportunity to do anything harmful with it. They were mostly restricted to long-range efforts that were either blocked or flew wide and it was Everton who nearly scored again three minutes from the break when Romelu Lukaku assumed free-kick duties and forced Benaglio to push his 25-yard effort away to safety.

The Blues did double their lead, though, on the stroke of half-time. Lukaku collected a return pass from Naismith and held the ball up until Mirallas had joined the attack down the left flank before cutting in past his marker and firing hard at the 'keeper. Benaglio parried his shot but Baines had once again overlapped on the outside and, reacting quicker than any of the white shirts around him, he prodded the rebound across goal where Seamus Coleman stooped to head home Everton's second.

The game was effectively put to bed less than two minutes after the interval, albeit in fortuitous circumstances. Aiden McGeady was alive to an awful giveaway by a defender, seizing on the loose pass and prompting the covering man to take his legs just outside the area. The referee, though, pointed the penalty spot and that was all the invitation Baines needed to plant a flawless penalty into the right side of the goal to make it 3-0.

With that cushion, the Blues lapsed into a sloppy period of play that allowed Wolfsburg to enjoy what was arguably their best spell of the match, with unease starting to ripple through the home crowd. That they weren't able to claw their way back into the contest was credit to Tim Howard who made a string saves, including one superb one-handed stop to deny Rodriguez from his first direct free kick opportunity and a finger-tip save that guided a De Bruyne effort safely past the far post.

There was also a blue shirt in the way of almost every Wolfsburg shot so that anything that wasn't blocked was deflected wide and the Blues dealt with the corners thrown their way with composure.

With an hour gone and every indication that the game was as good as won, Martinez withdrew Lukaku who had not had his best game but had still made some important contributions and introduced Samuel Eto'o up front. The Cameroon international was unfortunate not to end up on the end of a Baines centre that was cut out by a defender but he was on hand to flick a forward pass on in the closing minutes for Mirallas to score Everton's fourth. He had a clear run on the 'keeper and slid it past him with aplomb to cap an enormously satisfying victory.

Rodriquez, of course, would score that late consolation with a perfectly-placed free kick after Darron Gibson's foul that caught the inside of the post with Howard able to only watch but it only took the barest gloss off a fine victory for the Blues to kick off their Europa League campaign.

All in all, you can't ask for much more than a 4-1 thumping of a team that finished fifth in the Bundesliga last season and it lays down a marker for the rest of Group H that highlights us as the team to beat. If there were a few nits, they chiefly concerned a lack of ball retention in the middle of the park, with too many balls going astray but none of them were punished and it all serves as a learning experience for Martinez's team.

Two wins on the bounce now in all competitions, Everton's season feels like it has kicked into gear. Now we have to maintain this level of intensity as the matches start to pile up but tonight offered some very positive signs.

Follow @EFCLyndon

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