MINA MIRACLE
Quickfire double triggers Carlo joy
SO THE script writers had it half right.
The stage was set for a south American with Catalan links to push Watford closer to the trap door. And so it proved. The only snag? Watford forgot there were two of them.
For 89 minutes of the match, the spotlight shone on the wrong man. Barcelona’s reported offer of £ 85million only heightened the attention around Richarlison ahead of his return to Watford.
For a while, though, he was a mere spectator as former Barcelona centre- back Yerry Mina netted twice in three minutes to haul the visitors back from 2-0 down.
Then, with Everton down to 10 men and the clock ticking towards 90, Richarlison finally had his say.
As Watford pushed for a winner, the forward led a counter-attack, driving 50 yards with the ball before squaring it to Moise Kean. He scuffed his shot into the path of Theo Walcott who squeezed the ball beyond Ben Foster.
Cue pandemonium in the away end and another ode to ‘ Carlo Magnifico’. The Everton manager was about the only member of the visiting bench not to sprint towards Walcott as carnage ensued.
‘If I run, I am dead!’ Ancelotti joked afterwards.
His rebuild has not been without its bumps. But this brilliant show of resolve crowned a first month in charge that bodes well.
‘ It’s a great, important result,’ Ancelotti said.
Before this, Everton had failed to win in 35 Premier League games in which they had trailed. On the 25 occasions they had been two down, they had always lost.
‘It’s a good sign,’ Ancelotti said after they broke that duck. Now Everton are just three points off fifth-place Sheffield United and a push for Europe is not ruled out.
The stakes are rather less glamorous for Watford. Until those three catastrophic minutes, the hosts had this game in their grasp and another week — at least — outside the bottom three beckoned.
Goals from Adam Masina and Roberto Pereyra put t hem in control. Even after Mina’s brace, a red card to Fabian Delph presented Watford with another chance to take all three points. In the end they left with none. ‘It’s exceptionally disappointing,’ said boss Nigel Pearson. ‘We scored two good goals, so to come in (at half-time) at two a piece was frustrating. We didn’t work hard enough to preserve the lead we’d worked so hard to get. The players are a bit down as I’d expect them to be.’
Pearson’s rescue mission has begun to stutter. His side are winless in four games and second from bottom — two points from safety. The upturn his arrival sparked has been tempe red, even if not extinguished. Here again there was cause for optimism until Mina struck.
Certainly their opener appeared yet more evidence of how Pearson has given belief back to this side.
From the right, Etienne Capoue sprayed a ball to the opposite flank, where Gerard Deulofeu brought it down, drove towards the box and picked out Masina, who fired across Jordan Pickford into the corner.
It was his first Watford goal and t he game’s first real flash of quality. A skied Richarlison shot aside, Everton were strangled for much of the early going. They stayed in the game, though, until Delph’s first gift of the afternoon.
The England international slid a pass towards his defence that was too short. Troy Deeney pounced, picking out Pereyra, who fired beyond Pickford.
That should have been that. But twice in quick succession Watford were undone from a corner. First Mina fired home from a goalmouth scramble, then he headed beyond Foster.
If stoppage time was their enemy against Newcastle last time out, here it proved their route back into the game. Their hopes of completing the comeback, however, looked over when Delph’s afternoon was cut short.
Already on a yellow card, he was sent off for a needless foul on Capoue — a very harsh call by Craig Pawson that mattered little in the end.
Richarlison was the last player to l eave the field after the final whistle — topless and the toast of the Everton fans. Just as the script was supposed to end.