Everton 0 – 2 Manchester City
Everton’s resolute defence against the current Champions and financial pariars Manchester City was final broken after Moyes’s subs seemed to backfire.
Half-time: 0-0
Branthwaite had a chance with a header but it was palmed away.
Tarkowski stretched for an aerial ball and looked to have pulled a hamstring. Keane replaced but he was booked soon after.
Some lovely play by Ndiaye allowed Doucouré to practice step overs before shotting, his effort pushed behind for a corner which Ortega was able to catch and launch a counter.
Gana felt he had to pull his man back at the expense of another yellow card. Broja was replaced by Beto after the hour mark.
Nothing came of the free kick as City seemed to lack either the ideas or the desire to break Everton’s resolute defence.
Gundogan saw a chance but could only drive his shot straight at Pickford. Beto got forward but could not create a chance.
Mykolenko tackled well to force a turnover that developed to the point of Ndiaye shooting but it was always flying past the angle.
Savinho with another chance, stretching onhis shot, that Pickford got down well to save.
David Moyes, finally getting to grips with the rules around substitutions, goes for a tripe sub as City change two with barely 10 minutes remaining.
Pickford was out smartly to snatch the ball away from the attacker at the expense of getting kicked by Michael Keane.
Keane delivered a gift to Mamoush as Everton were finally starting to threaten seriously but Pickford was in the right place again to thwart City.
But a cutback across goal was turned in by Nico O’Reilly, beating Keane to the ball and slotting it easily past Pickford, with Everton a lot more stretched since all the substitutions.
Doku almost embarrassed O’Brien as City incorrectly won a corner. City kept up the attacking to prevent any chance of an unlikely equalizer in the 5 added minutes and Kovacic was finally able to make a difficult strike count on the stretch.
What had looked like another draw for Moyes was lost in the last few minutes to two predatory strikes by City, and it was probably the Everton subs as well as the loss of James Tarkowski that saw Everton’s defensive discipline ripped apart a little bit too easily.
Everton: Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Gana, Garner, Doucoure, Harrison, Ndiaye
Subs: Virginia, Patterson, McNeil, Keane, Beto, Young, Coleman, Alcaraz, Iroegbunam.
Manchester City: Ortega Moreno, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Nico, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Savinho, Silva, Marmoush
Subs: Carson, Kovacic, Grealish, Doku, Akanji, Khusanov, Foden, Lewis, McAtee