The tide turned after half-time at Elland Road on Wednesday night when Leeds United turned the screw and Everton simply could not get out of their own half.
Esteemed manager Carlo Ancelotti admitted the early Raphinha strike ensured the tide of United attacks pinned the Toffees in and defence was their top priority.
“Most of the difficulties we had were because we conceded an easy goal too early and we thought only to defend,” he said.
“We were not able to play because they put more pressure and in fact, we had opportunities in counter-attack, two or three times, to score the third goal.”
Kalvin Phillps was tasked with marking and tracking Gylfi Sigurdsson on the night at Elland Road, but it seems the feeling was mutual.
Ancelotti confirmed after the match it was the Icelander’s task to disrupt Phillips’s own passing game from deep.
“That was the plan we had for him, to have control defensively of Kalvin,” he said. “And he did really well also because offensively he supported really well Calvert-Lewin.”
