Jelavic joy as Everton set up last-four derby
Sunderland Everton
JUST what Kenny Dalglish didn’t need: a semi-final s h o wdown wi t h neighbours Everton for the first time in 35 years after they knocked out Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
Everton manager David Moyes has not had much money to spend in his decade at Goodison Park but the £ 5million invested in Croatian striker Nikica Jelavic must be among his best deals.
The January signing from Rangers scored his third goal in eight games for Everton to set up at date at Wembley as Sunderland froze on a big night for manager Martin O’neill.
He then supplied the shot in the 57th minute which Sunderland’s poor substitute David Vaughan put into his own net. The Wales midfielder could have cleared comfortably but fell to ground and managed to hit the ball with both feet before it went tamely over the l i ne. Moyes and the entire Everton bench bounced on to the pitch in celebration as Vaughan lay devastated.
The win sets up the first FA Cup semi-final meeting between the two Merseyside clubs since 1977, and their first Wembley match since the 1989 Cup final, which Liverpool won. And with Dalglish under increasing pressure at Anfield, it will be an intriguing showdown.
With more than 6,000 visiting fans behind one goal, and another 37,000 home fans filling nearly every seat in the other three stands, there was an edge tto ththe atmosphere.t h It was matched in the early minutes by the pace and intensity of the match.
Everton i nitially took the game to the hosts and former Liverpool defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos may have looked particularly uncertain in the opening exchanges but was able to clear a Magaye Gueye cross away from Jelavic in the fifth minute. Three minutes later, Tim Cahill broke through but shot weakly into Simon Mignolet’s arms.
Sunderland struggled to get any grip on the first half and their key players failed to hit the target on the few occasions they made any gains towards the Everton goal.
Phil Bardsley scored his first of the season in the original tie at Everton, but saw another SUNDERLAND (4-4-1-1): Mignolet 8; Bardsley 5, Kyrgiakos 5 (Vaughan 53min, 6), Turner 6, Bridge 6 (Campbell 63, 6); Larsson 6, Gardner 6, Cattermole 7, Mcclean 6; Sessegnon 6; Bendtner 5. Subs not used: Gordon, Kilgallon, Meyler, Elmohamady, Ji Dong-won. Booked: Bardsley, Larsson, Cattermole. EVERTON (4-5-1): Howard 6; Neville 7, Heitinga 5, Distin 6, Baines 7; Osman 7, Gibson 7, Fellaini 6, Cahill 7, Gueye 7 (Jagielka 81); Jelavic 8 (Stracqualursi 87). Subs not used: Hahnemann, Hibbert, Duffy, Mcfadden, Anichebe. Scorers: Jelavic 24, Vaughan (og) 57. Booked: Gibson, Gueye, Fellaini, Heitinga, Jelavic. Man of the match: Nikica Jelavic. Referee: Lee Probert 6. long-range effort blocked easily here. His team- mate Craig Gardner was also struggling. The midfielder nearly broke the crossbar on Saturday against QPR with a free-kick, but his first set-piece last night flew into Tim Howard’s wall.
In the 32nd minute winger James Mcclean was played into a promising position by Wayne Bridge but Leighton Baines made the brave block in front of Howard’s goal to deny Nicklas Bendtner.
Everton had been equally wasteful until Jelavic’s opener and Mignolet had to make two crucial saves to deny Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini. Inevitably, a Cahill chance came from a well-worked corner between Darron Gibson and Gueye. The Aust r a l i a n e merged unmarked in a crowd of players to head goal- wards, only to be denied by Mignolet’s brilliant reaction. The pointing from O’neill and his coach Steve Walford seemed to suggest Kyrgiakos was at fault.
However, the Sunderland keeper had no chance when former Rangers striker Jelavic burst through to meet another centre from Gueye, this time from open play.
Fellaini created the initial opening with a pass down the left flank which looked beyond the Frenchman but he raced past Bardsley to reach the ball in the corner and his low cross was met first time by Jelavic, who drilled his shot into the bottom left-hand corner.
Unhappy that the l ast 10 minutes of the first half had slipped out of his players’ grasp, Moyes clearly sent Everton out with the intention of getting an early goal after the break to kill the tie.
And Osman nearly provided it after he met a poor clearance from a Gueye corner with a sweetly struck right foot shot which curled only just wide.
Jelavic then went down under Kyrgiakos’s challenge in the penalty area but despite the howls from Everton fans, referee Lee Probert ignored calls for a spot kick. Moyes, who had already had a row with fourth official Kevin Friend, waved his arms in defeat.
Sunderland’s i nability to create any meaningful chances to trouble Tim Howard forced O’neill into a positive change to take the game to the visitors. So he sent on Vaughan for the dreadful Kyrgiakos.
The Wales midfielder did at least manage to conjure up a goal. Unfortunately for him it was at the wrong end.