EPL News: Birmingham City versus Everton 0 – 2, Full time Analysis (Part 2)
At the kickoff Everton showed promise of deliverance and they kicked around the ball prudently looking forward to any opportunities that fluttered by. They were patient and confident in what they were planning and tried to attack
the precarious flaws of Birmingham.
Tim Cahill was in his starry form as he crossed deep to Baines. His plays were also impressive as the duo split the defence and created a lot of space to take shots. However the usual headers were often picked up by the glove man
Ben Foster.
Everton’s domination is an understatement when talking about the left flank as creating space and making plays was child’s game there. Yakubu Ayegbeni produced crosses while Seamus Coleman made runs to accept them. He too was exceptional
in heading the ball but they too landed either in the gloves of Foster or landed across the net.
Following such plays Yakubu drew a low flying shot in front of the goal with City being plastered back against the posts and preparing for a beat down. Everton restricted City mostly to their half of the field.
There were understandable moments of frustration from the Everton camp too, especially from Cahill who was slacking in finishing and heading the ball being far away too often, but nonetheless as wine matures with age so did he,
ultimately in becoming best of the flavour from the whole lot.
Birmingham were so depressed at their home by this surprising change of attitude by Everton that they did not recover from the stunt till the 26th minute where they presented their first chance to score in the game.
Cameron Jerome was the man who had the chance of putting his club ahead but it seemed like his legs were still shaky from the half an hour assault.
Next came Sylvain Distin, who could only watch and chip the ball from Barry Ferguson to the route of Jerome. In the attempt to score Jerome did produce a fine run but his shot was miles wide from the goal posts.
With this rare offence it seemed that Everton had taken enough and retaliated with Roger Johnson’s mistake as Yakubu made a run towards the goal from the left.
However Foster was the man without whom Birmingham City would have been sheep with wolves on field today. He timed his hands to block the cross along with Liam Ridgewell who was cleared the ball into the air.
Everton’s fluency in the midfield which resulted in astonishing plays was extremely impressive. It was like David Moyes had finally taken hint of the criticism Sir Alex Ferguson was throwing at him and made his men drink a special
elixir of performance.
The last try of Everton towards the goal was followed by another as Yakubu orchestrated the team in front of the goal and then sliced in another cross for Leon Osman to score. Disappointingly it was Osman again who failed to utilize
yet another attempt to score. He began with controlling the ball and continued that with carving the ball over Foster and the crossbar.
That was yet again followed by another close chance for Everton to score and it seemed that this time the break in between the match had refreshed and reinvented Everton players for the better, caution would be certainly thrown
at the performance elixir no doubt.
Osman came up with a moment of brilliance this time and in the end it was only Johnson who launched himself in front of the shot just in time to block it in archetypal style and impressively succeeded in it.
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