WILDER AGONY
Richarlison sinks Blades’ Euro hopes
SHEFFIELD UNITED’S hopes of making it to Europe were left grounded following a second-half winner from Richarlison.
Blades boss Chris Wilder has spent most of this season living in hope that he could lift the club into the Europa League.
But the chances of them achieving this for the first time in their 130-year history are now over after Wolves’ win. Richarlison’s 46th-minute header lit up this otherwise dire contest to end the Toffees’ four-game winless run. It was no less than Carlo Ancelotti’s men deserved against a Blades side that lacked their usual energy and sharpness.
Wilder had kept faith with the same side who had lost to Leicester in their last game and included Ben Osborn, David McGoldrick and Sander Berge – despite hauling all three of them off at the start of the second half against the Foxes. Ancelotti handed a first
Premier League start to 18-year-old defender Jarrad Branthwaite. The youngster, who joined the Toffees from Carlisle in a £1million deal in January, replaced the injured Mason Holgate.
He was one of four changes, with Gylfi Sigurdsson, Djibril Sidibe and Theo Walcott also starting. The Toffees should have been ahead after fashioning the two best chances of the opening exchanges. Walcott was the first to threaten when he found space on the right and he flashed a dangerous ball across the face of the Blades goal, but no team-mate was on hand to meet it.
Moments later, the impressive Andre Gomes played in Dominic CalvertLewin, but the striker’s control betrayed him and Dean Henderson was able to snuff out the danger.
Henderson had his righthand post to thank for keeping out Calvert-Lewin’s header from Walcott’s cross on half-time as the Blades continued to look somewhat blunt. But their luck finally ran out early in the second half, when Richarlison guided Sigurdsson’s free-kick past Henderson with a smart header to end both the stalemate and tedium.
Henderson did well to prevent Calvert-Lewin’s deflected shot from making it 2-0 before the hour mark as Ancelotti’s men went in for the kill.
SHEFFIELD UNITED (3-5-2): Henderson 7; Basham 8 (Zivkovic 83), Egan 6, O’Connell 6; Baldock 6, Berge 6, Norwood 6 (Lundstram 69, 6), Osborn 6 (Sharp 60, 6), Stevens 6; McBurnie 6 (Fleck 60, 6), McGoldrick 6.
EVERTON (4-4-2): Pickford 7; Sidibe 7, Keane 8, Branthwaite 7, Digne 6; Walcott 7 (Gordon 84), Davies 6, Gomes 9, Sigurdsson 8 (Coleman 88); Calvert-Lewin 6, Richarlison 7. Goal: Richarlison 46.