Digne curls home late free-kick to salvage draw for Toffees
EVERTON defender Lucas Digne snatched a 2-2 draw against Watford in the Marco Silva grudge match at Goodison Park in the sixth minute of added time.
The two clubs are still in dispute over the Toffees’ approach for the Portuguese just over a year ago, which Watford blamed for their slump in results and ultimately led to his sacking shortly after and his appointment on Merseyside in the summer.
Everton took an early lead as another former Hornet Richarlison scored his eighth of the season, but the hosts failed to press home their advantage and a Seamus Coleman own goal equaliser was quickly followed by Abdoulaye Doucoure’s power header before Ben Foster saved Gylfi Sigurdsson’s spot-kick.
However, Digne picked the perfect moment to score his first goal for the club with a curling free-kick 50 seconds before the final whistle.
It extended Watford’s winless run to six matches and denied them an historic first win at Goodison Park in 13 attempts.
It took Everton 15 minutes to break down their visitors, but they still required an element of luck and an assistant’s oversight.
Andre Gomes powered into the penalty area and danced past a couple of tackles, but as he chased the ball, Theo Walcott, who was coming back from an offside position, touched it on.
However, there was no offside flag from Simon Long and Gomes cut back for Richarlison to fire home.
The Brazil international was denied a second from Sigurdsson’s pass by Jose Holebas’ lunging interception six yards out, while Yerry Mina was booked for handball as he tried to force home another Sigurdsson cross.
Troy Deeney’s cushioned volley then dropped wide as the Hornets pressed and t he already-booked Mina’s challenge on Isaac Success had manager Javi Gracia marching onto the pitch at half-time to unsuccessfully confront Kevin Friend after the referee did not award a foul.
Former Everton forward Gerard Deulofeu was introduced on the hour.
The Spaniard’s throughball soon released Kiko and, when Roberto Pereya’s shot rebounded off a post, Coleman was caught by surprise and the ball went in off his thigh.
Less than three minutes later, Watford were ahead when Pereya’s cross was met by Doucoure, whose powerful downward header could not be kept out by Pickford.
The madness was not over as Christian Kabasele inexplicably charged into Mina to concede a penalty, only for Sigurdsson to drill his spot-kick straight at Ben Foster.
Silva’s desperation saw him deploy Mina as a centre-for- ward for the six minutes of added time, but it was another defender in the shape of Digne who came to his rescue.