Bingo. Watched the 1st half with a couple of Everton fans at the local pub....had to leave...but before I did told them no-way Everton would progress playing so negative a low pressure game against a Portuguese side.....high pressure, up tempo was the order of the day....otherwise you're fcuked.
As much as we praise Moyes, you gotta put this one him. He got it into his head that the best way to win this match was to limit the number of over all chances created in the match, both for him and sporting. That backfired. The players didn't do a bad job of executing that game plan either. But you Sporting has proven to be too good for it.
To be more exact, Sporting have won 5 games at home in all competitions this season. None by more than 1 goal. Everton have gotten dominated. Really inexplicable.
Exactly. And a team of Everton's quality should be able to take it to Sporting. Truly odd game plan from Moyes.
and Matches like this are always why I question why people make European soccer to the highest standard in the world btw. It's always so tactical and cynical. Give me a free-flowing league match anytime.
Oh well, bad game for LD and Everton. Sporting seemed to be very aware of his threat on the counter and managed to cut out or prevent most outlet passes going his way.
Why? You give no credit to Sproting what-so-ever and write as if this was a match-up like Man Yanited vs Hull. Sporting is much more on par with Everton than you think.
¿Didn't Benfica more or less destroy Everton earlier in the competition? Some sort of Portuguese curse.
last gasp for everton will it be a goal? edit:OH MY GOD WHAT A GOAL..QUE GOLLLLLLLLLLLLAZO...sporting 3 everton 0
I give a lot of credit to them. I think Moyes clearly underestimated them in thinking they could simply soak up their pressure and not concede. They're clearly better than that. However, I think Everton have better attacking players, and if Moyes had let them loose, this match would have turned out differently.