Toffees deny Spurs
Premier League strugglers Everton salvaged a 2-2 draw with Tottenham thanks to Jarrad Branthwaite’s last-gasp equaliser, while Aston Villa moved into fourth place with a 5-0 demolition of Sheffield United on Saturday.
Former Everton striker Richarlison had scored just one league goal for Tottenham between August 2022 and December 2023.
But he has now struck nine times in Tottenham’s last eight league games, putting the visitors ahead in the fourth minute and restoring their lead with a superb strike from the edge of the area in the 41st.
However, Everton rallied after a poor start and their tactic to target Tottenham keeper
Guglielmo Vicario from corners paid off with a 30thminute equaliser.
Jack Harrison was backing into Vicario before turning in Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s header towards goal. And in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Spurs’ Cristian Romero could only head James Garner’s free-kick towards his own goal and Branthwaite bundled the ball home.
“It’s obviously never going to be an easy game here. You have to deal with a fair bit but most of the time we handled it OK. Unfortunately we couldn’t hold out,” Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou said.
Third-bottom Everton have failed to win in six league games, but Toffees manager
Sean Dyche said: “We deserved at least an equaliser, if not all three (points).”
Villa climbed above Spurs with a thrashing of the bottomof-the-table Blades at Bramall Lane. Unai Emery’s side went ahead after 12 minutes when John McGinn tapped into the empty net after Ollie Watkins’ shot hit the post.
Watkins bagged the second four minutes later, slotting home Douglas Luiz’s pass, and Leon Bailey made it three with a curler into the top corner in the 20th minute. When Youri Tielemans drilled his shot in via the bar, Villa became the first away team to score four goals in the opening 30 minutes of a Premier League game since Chelsea at Bolton in 2011.
Emery’s men showed no mercy as Alex Moreno volleyed in number five two minutes after half-time. Villa are five points behind leaders Liverpool, who visit third-placed Arsenal on Sunday.
At St James’ Park, Newcastle staged a fightback to rescue a 4-4 draw against Luton. Sean Longstaff put Newcastle ahead in the seventh minute with a close-range finish from Kieran Trippier’s cross.
Gabriel Osho headed Luton level in the 21st minute off Ross Barkley’s cross. Longstaff restored Newcastle’s advantage two minutes later, but Barkley equalised five minutes before half-time.
Luton won a 59th-minute penalty after Chiedozie Ogbene
was tugged by Dan Burn, after a lengthy VAR check determined the foul was inside the area. Carlton Morris scored but had to retake the kick due to encroachment, holding his nerve to net with his second attempt.
Elijah Adebayo’s composed strike three minutes later increased Luton’s lead, but Trippier’s 67th-minute close-range finish gave Newcastle hope.
Harvey Barnes completed Newcastle’s escape act six minutes later with a fierce finish into the bottom corner. Luton moved one point clear of the relegation zone, while Newcastle are in ninth place.
Brighton crushed Crystal Palace 4-1 at the Amex Stadium.
Goalkeeper G was Qatar’s hero as the hosts and holders beat Uzbekistan 3-2 on penalties on Saturday to propel them into an Asian Cup semi-final with Japan’s conquerors Iran.
Meshaal Barsham saved three times in the penalty shootout after the quarterfinal with Uzbekistan ended 1-1 following 120 minutes of stalemate. Pedro Miguel slotted in the winning penalty for Qatar in front of almost 60,000 fans at Al-Bayt Stadium north of Doha.
The triumphant Qatar players tossed Barsham in the air at the end. “With penalties there is some anticipation and there is some luck,” said Barsham, who was also fortunate that the three he saved were weak efforts from Uzbekistan.
Qatar had won their four previous games at the tournament but they were given a stiffer test by Uzbekistan. Qatar opened the scoring midway through the first half when captain Hassan Al-Haydos forced an own goal from Utkir Yusupov, the goalkeeper flapping the ball into his own net.
Uzbekistan levelled just before the hour when Odiljon Hamrobekov broke free of the Qatar defence and drilled a shot into the corner of the net.
And Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored a 96th-minute penalty to give Iran a dramatic 2-1 win over Japan in their quarterfinal.
The first semi-final is on Tuesday when Son Heungmin’s South Korea face Jordan.