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MATCH REPORT : SOUTHAMPTON 1-2 EVERTON
Everton arrived on the South Coast hoping to take advantage of a confidence issue that the Saints may have been suffering from given their last home game ended in a 0-9 defeat against Leicester City.
However, it took Everton just 240 seconds to breach a defence severely bereft of confidence. It was a set piece to the near post which Mason Holgate a headed on towards Davies, who nodded in unmarked at the far post to given Everton the lead.
It was a lead Everton should have doubled or even trebled in the first half. The Blues have been wasteful in front of goal for the majority of the season and this game was no different with Tosun, Walcott and Richarlison all guilty of passing up presentable opportunities before the break. As it happened, Southampton were fortunate to trail by a single goal at the interval.
Southampton made a change at the break and brought on Sofiane Boufal who had an almost instant impact. The forward beat Morgan Schneiderlin, with ease and his low cross deflected off Yerry Mina and into the path of Danny Ings, who lashed home his seventh goal of the season.
The game then briefly went end to end, with Everton having two more chances through Sigurdsson and Tosun but both put their chances wide. At the other end, Jordan Pickford made a superb save to stop a James Ward-Prowse free-kick finding the top corner.
Marco Silva introduced Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Alex Iwobi and both made an impact to swing the game back in Everton’s favour. Everton kept knocking on the door in pursuit of a winner and deservedly found one when Richarlison volleyed in Djibril Sidibé’s cross after the frenchman had been fed by Iwobi. It really should have been more as Iwobi and Calvert-Lewin missed chances late on.
Marco Silva was clearly delighted with the victory although he felt it should have been by a greater margin, he was correct Everton registered 24 shots to Southampton’s 4, Silva said :
“We should have killed the game in the first half because of all the chances we created but we showed strong character after the equaliser, to get the result we deserved.”
How they lined up :
