A draw means Everton remain bottom of Group E after picking up one point from their first two matches. They should have won after fighting back from a goal down to lead 2-1, especially after their moderate opponents were reduced to 10 men, but they dropped their guard after Valentin Roberge’s red card and were pegged back to 2-2 moments later. Ronald Koeman will be furious - for so many reasons. It was another unconvincing performance from Everton, who are too slow and predictable. Nikola Vlasic’s goal was a bright spot, but the boos at the end told the story of a frustrating night. A setback for Everton, but a great result for Apollon Limassol, who are level with Lyon after the French side’s 1-1 home draw with group frontrunners Atalanta. Thanks for reading and emailing. Night.
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Full-time: Everton 2-2 Apollon Limassol
Oh Ronald.
90 min+3: An Apollon defender boots a clearance against his own man. It loops over Vale, but it drops on to the roof of the net! Dearie me, that was almost the most farcical of own goals. Apollon still have to deal with a corner. Vale punches it away, Everton put it back in but they can’t break through.
90 min+1: There will be three added minutes. The home fans have woken up. Apollon are defending from their 18-yard line. Everton have them pinned back.
90 min: Vlasic crosses from the left and the unmarked Calvert-Lewin must score, only to plant his downward header in a central position, allowing Vale to make an unlikely stop! He claws the ball out and for a moment Calvert-Lewin looks certain to ram home the rebound, only for Apollon to hack it clear! What a miss! What a save! What a miss.
GOAL! Everton 2-2 Apollon Limassol (Yuste, 88 min)
The 10 men are level! Pedro curls the free-kick into the middle and Yuste, whose blunder let to Rooney’s equaliser in the first half, sends a glancing header looping over Pickford and into the top left corner to spark wild celebrations in the away end!
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87 min: Klaassen somehow escapes without a booking after an agricultural swipe at Jander. A free-kick to Apollon, though, over on the left. And...
Valentin Roberge is sent off!
86 min: This is a shocker from the former Sunderland player, a stamp on Calvert-Lewin’s back that infuriates Everton, leads to a heated exchange between the teams and leaves the referee with no option but to show the defender a straight red card. That was disgusting.
84 min: Rooney tries to score from the halfway line. Nope.
83 min: Emilio Zelaya replaces Vasiliou.
82 min: Roberge blocks Kenny’s shot after the right-back was freed by Sigurdsson’s canny reverse pass. “I was rather concerned that JR from Illinois was being a tad disparaging towards his local woodpecker, calling it hairy and so forth, but then I checked on Wikipedia, and, by crikey, ‘hairy’ is not a reference to its hippy-like appearance, but the birdie’s real name,” says Kevin McKee. “Marvellous. Since it’s not a Magpie, given its strip I assume it’s a Notts County or WBA supporter. Now we know why it wasn’t up in its nest watching the Everton game.”
80 min: Rooney stings Vale’s palms with a shot from 25 yards.
77 min: When an Apollon move tamely breaks down, Rooney looks up and instantly lofts a 50-yard pass to Calvert-Lewin on the left. He drives inside and tries to curl the ball into the far corner, but the ball flies an inch wide. That would have been a great goal, but Apollon are still in contention and they bring on Jander for Sachetti.
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75 min: Vlasic, who’s really in the mood, tests Vale with a low drive from 18 yards.
73 min: Everton deal with the corner, but Apollon are exerting some pressure. Allan’s piledriver from 25 yards takes a deflection and whooshes wide.
72 min: Vasiliou swings a cross into the Everton area. Pickford comes, but doesn’t get there. he’s grateful to see it headed out to the right, where Sachetti wins a corner.
68 min: Davy Klaassen comes on for Tom Davies, Dominic Calvert-Lewin replaces Sandro Ramirez.
GOAL! Everton 2-1 Apollon Limassol (Vlasic, 66 min)
This isn’t, though! Sigurdsson cleverly flicks a pass through to Vlasic, who’s been impressive since his introduction, and the young Croatian maintains his composure to slide a low finish inside the left post for his first Everton goal!
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65 min: Sigurdsson floats a free-kick into the Apollon area from the right, but Williams can’t stretch far enough. This is fantastically dull.
63 min: Pickford races out of his area to beat Schembri to a long ball down the middle.
61 min: Andre Schembri replaces Antonio Jakolis.
59 min: Sideways, sideways.
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56 min: Rooney wallops one well over from 20 yards.
54 min: Jakolis has a dig from 25 yards, forcing Pickford to dive down to his left to push the ball out. A reminder of Apollon’s threat. Everton respond with a shot from Vlasic that dribbles comfortably wide.
51 min: Everton are trying to play at a higher tempo and they’ve pushed Apollon back at the start of this half, but it’s all bit aimless at the moment.
48 min: Has any side ever spent this much to be this slow?
46 min: Everton get the second half underway and they’ve made a half-time change, Nikola Vlasic replacing Idrissa Gueye in midfield.
Half-time: Everton 1-1 Apollon Limassol
Everton are fortunate to be level. They conceded a sloppy early goal, have achieved little of note and were only let back into it when the visitors gifted Wayne Rooney an equaliser.
45 min: Everton are so slow.
44 min: Everton make a mess clearing the ball and Baines has to block Jakolis’s shot out for a throw.
43 min: It looks like a good position for the left foot of Baines, but instead it’s Sigurdsson who shoots with his right foot. It’s a decent effort, but Vale makes a comfortable enough save, diving to his left to punch the ball away. Apollon break and Jakolis wins a corner on the right.
41 min: The Apollon fans haven’t stopped singing all half. The Everton fans are so quiet, though they do wake up when Davies lets fly with a vicious effort from 25 yards. It’s swerving and heading for the top left corner until Vale pushes it out spectacularly. Moments later, Everton win a free-kick on the edge of the area, to the right of the D.
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38 min: Ramirez beats a man on the left, turns and shoots over. He needs an injection of confidence.
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35 min: From Pedro’s outswinging corner, Yuste heads not too far over.
34 min: A neat Apollon move ends with Pedro winning a corner on the right.
33 min: “I just missed Everton’s goal because I had to go outside to see what was making a knocking noise on the side of my house,” says JR in Illinois. “It was a hairy woodpecker pecking on the window frame. It’s a handsome bird but I’m afraid I couldn’t allow it to continue its activity so I told it to eff off, which it then did.”
30 min: After a surging run from Ashley Beckenbauer, Rooney bends an effort just wide of the left post from 20 yards.
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27 min: Dominic Calvert-Lewin has his tracksuit top off, but Rooney’s gone back on. He’s wincing, though.
26 min: Rooney has gone off for some treatment to his left wrist. An Apollon defender stamped on it when he tried that overhead kick.
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25 min: Sandro Ramirez darts inside from the left and sprays a pass out to Kenny. His cross finds Davies at the far post. He heads the ball back across goal. Rooney fruitlessly tries an overhead kick before Sigurdsson’s hooked volley forces Vale to make a good save down to his left. This is more like it from Everton!
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GOAL! Everton 1-1 Apollon Limassol (Rooney, 21 min)
Feeling a bit sorry for Everton, Yuste offers them a path back into the match with a woeful piece of Williams-esque defending. The centre-back’s under mild pressure deep on the right, but he could just pump it up the line. Instead he decides to knock it back to his goalkeeper, only he doesn’t know where he is. The ball runs past Bruno Vale, who can’t believe it, and straight to Rooney, who isn’t about to miss from two yards out. Oh dear. Oumar Niasse would have been proud of that finish.
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20 min: Sigurdsson tries to backheel the ball to Rooney. The ball does not reach Rooney. This is wretched. The natives are restless. Sandro Ramirez briefly livens things up, but he can’t find Rooney in space on the right with his first attempt at a pass. He eventually does, but Rooney proceeds to send his cross out for a goal-kick.
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18 min: Maglica charges to the right byline and gets another cross into the area. It’s hastily hacked clear after a miskick from Holgate. Everton look painfully nervous. The silence inside Goodison Park doesn’t help. You fancy that might turn into rancour if this doesn’t change soon.
16 min: Apollon fancy this. A clearance from Holgate falls to Vasiliou, 25 yards out, and he meets the bouncing ball with a meaty drive that flies harmessly over in the end. It was travelling at some speed, though.
15 min: Everton are stunned. Tom Davies loses possession inside his own half, drawing howls from the home fans. He ends up conceding a free-kick 25 yards from goal. Alef sees his effort deflected wide for a corner.
GOAL! Everton 0-1 Apollon Limassol (Sardinero, 13 min)
Oh Ronald. Oh Ashley. Oh Everton. This is a poor goal to concede. A long ball down the right should be dealt with by Ashley Williams. He’d like to let it run back to Pickford, but instead, at the last moment, he changes his mind and tries to play it to Baines. Maglica seizes on the loose ball and with Baines out of position, he whips a lovely cross into the six-yard box for Sardinero. Six yards out, his first effort’s blocked by Pickford, but the ball runs loose for him for a tap-in!
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12 min: A long punt from Pickford’s allowed to drift into the Apollon area. The flight of the ball’s read by Rooney, who gets in between the two centre-backs, but he just fails to control it.
11 min: The Limassol fans amuse themselves by booing Rooney. This is scrappy.
8 min: Everton win a free-kick on the right. Sigurdsson sends it straight to Bruno Vale.
7 min: Apollon have made a decent start here. Vasiliou, the captain, knocks in a cross from the left that Maglica heads well over.
6 min: Everton are looking to their wingers at every opportunity.
5 min: Everton are playing a high line and the visitors have already tried to exploit that with swift breaks on two occasions. The final pass has been wasteful, though.
4 min: Trevor Francis agrees with me. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Goodison Park crowd as quiet as this,” the BT Sport co-commentator says.
3 min: Goodison Park is eerily quiet.
Peep! Apollon Limassol, in white shirts and black shorts, get the game underway. They’re kicking from left to right in the first half.
Here come the teams. Goodison Park applauds. 1,500 Cypriot fans have made the journey and they’re making sure they play their part.
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“I’ve got to say with all the fake news around these days I am having a very hard time believing that Sandro has only just turned 22 years old,” says JR in Illinois. “Dude looks 40. Seriously. Take a good look at him. It’s absurd.”
Is this like refusing to believe Theo Walcott is 28?
Everton make three changes to the team that beat Bournemouth on the weekend. Jonjoe Kenny replaces Cuco Martina at right-back, Tom Davies takes Davy Klaassen’s place in midfield and Sandro Ramirez is in attack instead of Dominic Calvert-Lewin. But Oumar Niasse, sadly, is nowhere to be seen. Oh Ronald.
There are a couple of surprising exclusions in the Apollon Limassol line-up. Sofronis Avgoustis has caused a stir by dropping playmakers Alex and Nicolas Martinez. Alef and Allen start in midfield, while Jander is replaced by the veteran Cypriot, Georgios Vasiliou, at left-back. Vasiliou is likely to have his hands full dealing with Everton’s dashing right winger! Meanwhile it’s a surprise to see Anastasios Kissas on the bench. You’d think someone with that name would know how to get into his manager’s good books.
Team news
Everton: Kenny, Holgate, Williams, Baines; Gueye, Schneiderlin, Davies; Sandro, Rooney, Sigurdsson. Subs: Stekelenburg, Martina, Mirallas, Klaassen, Lookman, Calvert-Lewin, Vlasic.
Apollon Limassol: Vale; Pedro, Yuste, Roberge, Vasiliou; Allan, Sachetti, Alef; Jakolis, Maglica, Sardinero. Subs: Kissas, Martinez, Alex, Zelaya, Jander, Stylianou, Schembri.
Referee: Tamas Bognor (Hungary).
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Hello. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that questions that begin with the phrase “Is it just me...” are usually met with “No, it is not just you, most other people have noticed that”? You are not unique, you are not original, you are not the most insightful person walking the planet today. For example: was it just me or did anyone else notice that Everton’s transfer business got too much love in the summer? No, it wasn’t just me. That was a thing spotted by everyone who wasn’t a big, blond Dutchman who took a mean free-kick back in the day.
In all fairness it was quite the spending spree, the like of which had never been seen at Goodison Park before, and that level of expenditure made it inevitable there was talk of Everton busting into the top four this season. Early days, of course, but it isn’t quite working out as Ronald Koeman hoped - which isn’t to see that it was impossible to see this coming. All along, there was a sense of unease about what Everton were doing. They weren’t necessarily signing bad players, but were they signing the right ones? Spending big is all well and good, but you might not get where you want to go if a lot of the money goes on players from Burnley, Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Swansea, and Wayne Rooney.
Okay, maybe that’s an uncharitably snobbish take - but it didn’t necessarily feel like Everton were getting value for money. And all along, while they continued to sign players suited to the No10 role, it was strange that there wasn’t more of a focus on pace and width. The result, so far at least, is a very expensive one-paced team that’s struggling to move opponents around. They’ve been underwhelming at both ends in the league, losing badly to Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham, while the result that really left supporters asking serious questions about Koeman was the 3-0 defeat at Atalanta in their opening Europa League group match a fortnight ago.
Everton were utterly hopeless in Italy and with a double-header against Lyon to come, they desperately need to beat Apollon Limassol at Goodison Park tonight. The Cypriots aren’t to be taken lightly after drawing with Lyon last time out, but the good news is that Koeman’s men have been boosted by the Oumar Niasse show against Bournemouth last weekend. The bad news, however, is that Niasse is unavailable after being left out of Everton’s Europa League squad. Oh Ronald!
Kick-off: 8.05pm.
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