English Premier League – Match Review: Everton F.C versus Manchester United 3-3
Everton took on Manchester United in an exciting English Premier League fixture at the Goodison Park in Merseyside, England. The most important and prominent news that came out just before the kick-off was related to Wayne Rooney. The English national team’s striker was left out of Manchester United squad against Everton due to worries that he might face excessive abuse at the hands of his ex-club’s supporters amidst the problems that plague his personal life.
As for Everton, due to their injury troubles, David Moyes had to field a side with some what diminished players as most of the clubs recognized strikers were ruled out. Therefore Cahill and Fellaini played in attack for Everton with Baines at left back, Distin and Jagielka in central defense while Arteta, Pienaar and Osman made up with midfield. Everton went with the U.S national team goalkeeper, Tim Howard in between the sticks.
For United, Sir Alex Ferguson played Dimitar Berbatov in attack as the solitary striker. Behind Berbatov, Ferguson adopted a conservative five of O’Shea, Scholes, Fletcher, Giggs and Nani in midfield. At the back, Gary Neville was given the nod ahead of the youngster Rafael Da Silva while Vidic took up the captains arm band to play alongside Jonathan Evans in the center of United’s defense. At the left back spot, Evra maintained his place in the red devil’s starting lineup. Edwin Van Der Sar played in goal for the former English League champions.
The match started off with Manchester United on the back foot and Everton starting the game strongly. Within the first ten minutes of the match, Everton had their first chance on goal but they were thwarted by the goal posts as Mikel Arteta’s free kick nicked the top of the wood work. United’s first chance of the match came after a whole fifteen minutes of the first half as O’Shea almost found the top corner of the Everton net with a thunderous volley from around twenty yards out after the ball had fallen to the versatile footballer following a mix up in Everton’s penalty area.
United were comfortable playing on the break as Everton controlled most of the possession with Cahill and Fellaini supporting the midfield when their team was without the ball. United’s most standout player of the first twenty minutes was Nani who looked dangerous every time he had the ball. There was a discipline to the Portuguese wingers game as he was seen tracking back whenever Everton pushed on in an attack of their own.
In the 31st minute of the match, Paul Scholes almost found the back of the net with a thunderous shot after Nani had laid the ball off for the Manchester United midfielder following a free kick at the edge of Everton’s penalty area.
In the 39th minute of the match, United went a goal down after Evra made a mistake on the half way line and gave the ball away. Everton broke and Pienaar got their first goal of the match after Van Der Sar had saved the earlier shot from Leon Osman. However Manchester United didn’t take it lying down and soon launched an attack of their own.
Ferguson’s men equalized after Fletcher made contact with Nani’s accurate cross from the right side of midfield. Ryan Giggs became the first person to get booked right before the half way mark as he made a late tackle on Everton’s full back Tony Hibbert. At the half way mark, the scores were all level at one all as United’s made a late comeback to deny Everton the pleasure of taking the lead into the half time break.
Manchester United came out in a positive frame of mind in the second half and immediately took the game to Everton as they got their second goal of the match through Vidic’s header from Luis Nani’s cross. Vidic’s goal gave United a two goal to one lead in the 47th minute of the match. Manchester United went onto score their third goal of the match at around the 66th minute mark as Paul Scholes found Dimitar Berbatov with a sublimely lofted ball over the top of the Everton defense. Berbatov provided a cool finish to make it three goals to one, in favor of Sir Alex Ferguson’s team.
Everton brought on Yakubu and Coleman to find a way back into the match in the 68th minute of the match and these changes worked our brilliantly as Everton fought their way back into the game and scored two goals in the last two minutes of the game to grab a vital draw at home against Manchester United. Arteta and Cahill got the goals as the final score was 3-3.
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