Wolves 2 – 3 Everton
Everton extended their winning form in quite brilliant fashion against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on Saturday afternoon, with three excellent goals, despite two poor ones conceded.
The Blues will, however, miss Jarrad Branthwaite, Adam Aznou and Nathan Patterson for the trip to Molineux.
And David Moyes selects a potentially powerful midfield trio to feed Beto.
First Half
Garner pased it back to Pickford who hoofed it up to Beto in an all-too familiar kick-off routine. Garner swung in a great deep cross that looked perfect for Beto but he avoided heading it.
Arias rolled a low shot to Pickford from distance. But some lovely play by Everton on the left saw Gaerner and Grealish combining nicely, Mykolenko winning an early corner.
A great ball in from Garner was half-cleared, Everton working it around well, then Mykolenko to Grealish on the left and his headed cross was perfect for Beto to glance his header home. A really high-quality goal.
Everton had pressed forward with real intent and it paid off brilliantly. They had to defend then but did it competently. It was a bit scrappy for a while as Wolves tried to respond, Everton unable to hold the ball for long.
Beto took a long ball from Pickford brilliantly on his foot but then played it way backwards. Still, Everton looked quite confident until Gomes was too clever for Dewsbury-Hall who had to foul him for the game’s first yellow card, the free-kick driven.
Wolves got some rare possession but the cross in was straight to Pickford. A nice ball forward to Beto was allowed to bounce by him and the defender was in sharply — Beto needs to be a lot stronger!
But a simple-looking Wolves attack suddenly turned with a great ball in behind from Munetsi on the wing and Hwang, who had zoomed forward inside of Tarkowski, was picked out with precision, Pickford out late to challenge with no chance to stop it.
The game changed in an instant and now Everton looked all at sea, giving Wolves space to get crosses in. Grealish did his best, drawing a foul from Andre. It then became a bit spicy when the tackles started flying in.
Ndiaye did great to force a ball to Gana who fed Grealish but he wanted too much time to get the ball on his left foot. However, his shot won a corner but it was cleared this time, and Wolves won a corner for themselves off Mykolenko. Agbadou’s acrobatic shot flew over the Everton bar.
Beto was fouled and from it, a wonderful 1-2 between Dewsbury-Hall and Grealish should have been the second goal… but the follow-up made sure with some glorious football from Beto, and Dewsbury-Hall, who squared the ball across, Beto stepping over brilliantly to allow a simple finish for Iliman Ndiaye following in behind him. Just beautiful from Everton!
Munetsi pushed Mykolenko off the ball and did not like the referee calling it a foul. Ndiaye and Dewsbury-Hall tried more intricate passing but it was not quite right. Andre chased Grealish backwards before fouling him. Dewsbury-Hall’s deep crossfield deadball sailed over Tarkowski and out of play.
Dewsbury-Hall called for a handball, the Wolves free-kick and follow-up cleared twice by Tarkowski, setting up Ndiaye for a drive forward but he failed to pass the ball wide and was eventually blocked off by a rolling cul-de-sac of gold shirts.
The teams played out 3 added minutes with no real threats, after some brilliant football from Everton.
Second Half
Wolves began the second half with some real drive and intent but Grealish was really getting into it now. And he got forward with a bit of space around him, picking out Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall running ahead of him, but his first-time strike was just astounding. A simply brilliant shot into the top corner, off the base of the bar — the best goal of three brilliant strikes… so far.
That fantastic effort really took the sting out of the game as Everton locked in and looked to play out the final third of the game, Wolves making three changes after the hour mark.
But a great through ball to Munetsi needed brisk action from Pickford to boot it clear. Some exquisite play from Grealish released Mykolenko in space but his cross was behind Beto. Ndiaye was having a ball out wide right as Everton played confident possession play to destroy the home side’s spirit… until Tarkowski was forced to play it into touch.
Gana out wide on the touchline got his cross all wrong and that allowed Wolves to come forward, Hugo Bueno going down under pressure from Ndiaye, Everton perhaps getting away with one, but Bueno sprung back up and that could be the reason it wasn’t given as a penalty.
Everton finally came under some pressure, but it was resisted and Ndiaye was fouled wide right by Hugo Bueno who hurt himself in the process. The free kick after a slew of substitutions found O’Brien but he could only glance it wide.
Grealish kept being fouled. But Everton were not using the free-kicks well and they surrendered a really stupid goal, Gomes dashing in behind the Everton defence, Mykolenko mainly at fault this time, to plunder a second goal that should never have been allowed.
Mykolenko did well to shield the ball from Gomes and win a free-kick. But Wolves kept pushing forward, Garner there to stop a dangerous advance. Another dangerous attack forced O’Brien to head behind for a Wolves corner, Barry clearing but only as far as Lopez, his shot blocked.
Bellegarde cuts in on Dewsbury-Hall, giving up an advanced free-kick wide left. Garner powered it in but a defensive header eventually found Iroegbunam, whose shot was blocked.
Grealish was tiring and Alcaraz replaced him with a few minutes left, plus 6 added on. From a long Pickford clearance, Ndiaye drove in but Barry was slow to anticipate the ball in to him.
Wolves attacked again, and they almost got an equaliser, Bellegarde lashing in a shot that Pickford parried to Lopez but he drove his shot wide. Moyes swapped out Ndiaye for Coleman in what should be the final minute, Everton winning a late free-kick that should be the end of it.
And Michael Oliver finally blew the whistle on a fantastic Everton win, albeit cutting things close with two soft goals allowed.
Wolves: Sa, S Bueno, Agbadou, Gomes, Tchatchoua (64′ López), Andre (64′ Gomes), Gomes, H Bueno (76′ Wolfe), Munetsi, Hwang (76′ Kalajdzic), Arias (64′ Bellegarde).
Subs not Used: Krejcí, Johnstone, Doherty, Mosquera.
Everton: Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko, Gueye (76′ Iroegbunam), Garner; Ndiaye (90+6′ Coleman), Dewsbury-Hall [Y:16′], Grealish (88′ Alcaraz), Beto (76′ Barry).
Subs not Used: Travers, Armstrong, Onyango, McNeil, Dibling.
Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt and Lee Betts
Fourth Official: Adam Herczeg
Video Assistant Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistant VAR: Nick Hopton
Attendance: 30,271