Own-goal brace hits Toffees’ Euro charge at Saints
Print Edition
THE wheels came off Everton’s charge for UEFA Champions League qualification as two first-half own goals and a toothless attacking performance condemned it to a 0-2 English Premier League defeat at Southampton yesterday.
Roberto Martinez’s side has now lost two of its last three games and, with just two matches of its season left, is a point behind fourth-placed Arsenal which has played one fewer. The Gunners are at home to Newcastle United today, when league leader Liverpool takes on third-placed Chelsea and second-placed Manchester City is away to Crystal Palace.
Having benefited from three own goals and a penalty in their previous five Premier League matches, the tables were turned yesterday when the Merseysiders fell behind in less than a minute when Antolin Alcaraz headed into his own net.
Misfortune turned to calamity when Seamus Coleman steered another header past his own goalkeeper Tim Howard in the 31st minute and a poor day at the office was compounded when referee Michael Oliver booked Leon Osman for diving in the second half when he was clearly tripped in the area.
On-loan striker Romelu Lukaku had earlier missed two good scoring chances for Everton in the first half.
It was a setback, claimed Martinez, but not the final nail in the Toffees’ Champions League hopes.
“Everything that could have gone wrong defensively, it did and that made it a very difficult game defensively from that point on,” the Spaniard told BT Sport.
“From our point of view, it does not change at all. We have had eight wins in 10 games which is a phenomenal result that allows us to go into the last two games... We are working towards getting the biggest points tally we can get and then at the end of the season we will see where that takes us.”
As play kicked off, Paraguay defender Alcaraz got in front of the player he was marking to somehow head a cross from Southampton’s Rickie Lambert past a static Howard.
And the visitors fell further behind on the south coast shortly after the half-hour mark when Coleman, perhaps distracted by John Stones’s leaping in front of him, diverted Nathaniel Clyne’s cross beyond Howard.
Southampton stayed eighth on 52 points, five points adrift of Manchester United in seventh, a potential Europa League qualification place.
United was beginning life after the sacking of David Moyes against Norwich City later in the day with club great Ryan Giggs looking to spark an improvement as its interim coach until the end of the season.
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