EDINSON’S LATE SHOW
THIS was a superb performance from Edinson Cavani, the kind which young centre forwards should be encouraged to watch. Fine movement and touch, endless work and a natural understanding of position and space. And then there was a fantastic deciding goal.
The only problem with his display was that it could have been brought to a premature end after 52 minutes.
That was the moment when the Manchester United forward appeared to take hold of Yerry Mina’s throat and shove his opponent to the ground.
It wasn’t a particularly violent act, but it was also unprovoked. With VAR not in use by the Football League and referee Andrew Madley oblivious to the incident, Cavani remained on the pitch and the best player on show.
So when he took a pass from Anthony Martial with two minutes of normal time to go, ran at the Everton back four and curled a powerful shot in to the far corner of the net with his left foot, nobody should have been the least bit surprised.
It was a fantastic goal from a footballer who had often looked a degree better than the rest.
This was a victory Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United team deserved, too. They were quite brilliant for the first half an hour in particular. Only Everton goalkeeper Robin Olsen stood between them and several goals during that spell.
Everton did improve and had their moments. As time wore on, it seemed a penalty shootout was to follow.
But United had Martial and Marcus Rashford on as fresh substitutes for the final passages of play and it made a difference. Solskjaer deserves credit for that as well.
With the Premier League season so hectic and so important, this was a game the United manager could have downplayed in his mind. Who really needs to win the Carabao Cup after all? However, Solskjaer did not see it that way.
This was not his strongest team but it was still a team who were sent to out to play with purpose and intensity. And when he needed them, the Norwegian had the substitutes available to refresh things.
Solskjaer doesn’t always looks as tactically sharp as he could do but he got everything right here.
United were the better side at both ends of the contest and it got them over the line and into a semi-final with their city rivals in the end.
Everton will be disappointed. They grew into the game and were competitive. But they did not worry United enough when opportunities presented themselves.
United goalkeeper Dean Henderson only made two saves of note all night. As for Everton’s Olsen — on loan from Roma — the 30-yearold Swede was busy from the first moment.
United were so energetic in the early stages that it was surprising.
They do not usually start games like that. Maybe the two early goals they scored against Leeds on Sunday reminded them that a fast start can pay.
Everton struggled to cope with the intensity of United’s play and needed Seamus Coleman to block from Donny van de Beek, then Olsen to repel Cavani twice at the far post within a matter of seconds.
Not long after that, Mason Greenwood headed an Alex Telles cross against the outside of the far post and Paul Pogba nodded a corner down into the ground and up into the goalkeeper’s arms.
It seemed inevitable that United would score and had they done so it would have been a long road back for Carlo Ancelotti’s team.
But Everton did find their feet eventually.
Inevitably United’s tempo dropped a fraction and when Everton finally found some territory late in the first half, Henderson fielded a Dominic Calvert- Lewin header from a corner and then sprang athletically to his right to turn over a free-kick from Gylfi Sigurdsson.
As Everton carried their renewed belief and purpose in to the second half, Sigurdsson was often at the heart of it. He remains a player with a nice touch and range of vision.
Late in the game Sigurdsson lost the ball to Pogba, won it back again, laid it off and flung himself at the cross to head the ball across goal and wide. That would have been some goal in front of a Gladwys Street crowd of 2,000 who were starting to believe their team would earn a shootout at the very least.
But United were not settling for the uncertainty of penalties.
Cavani had already brought another sharp save from Olsen after controlling an Axel Tuanzebe pass neatly and his threat did not diminish by a single percentage point as the game wore on.
This was a genuine contest for the final hour and was good to watch.
But Cavani was the player who made a difference. Martial scored a second goal with the final kick of the night but by that point the script belonged to Cavani, for good and for bad.