UEFA CUP: Everton 2, Fiorentina 0 - post match analysis

Mar 13 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

EVERTON waved goodbye to the UEFA Cup in dramatic fashion last night. The challenge now is to ensure there is no swift reunion with the competition next season.

Once again, a penalty shoot-out proved the downfall after a brilliant comeback inside 90 minutes wasn’t enough for David Moyes’s side.

It was a truly heartbreaking way for the European adventure to end for Everton, a journey from which they have learned much about themselves and the potential of this squad.

Having hauled themselves back level on aggregate with goals from Andrew Johnson and Mikel Arteta in their round of 16 second leg tie, the Goodison outfit were the more deserving to progress.

So impotent and unrecognisable when losing 2-0 in Florence last week, Everton were fantastic last night. Purposeful, creative and with the right measure of aggression, Moyes’s men pummelled the Fiorentina defence. But penalties are always a lottery. And that Yakubu and Phil Jagielka, two of Everton’s finest players in recent months and again excellent on the night, should be the ones to have failed from 12 yards was a cruel twist.

Yakubu struck the post with Everton’s second effort while Jagielka was denied by a brilliant save from Fiorentina goalkeeper Sebastian Frey with the home team’s fourth penalty.

Everyone else scored, which left Fiorentina substitute Mario Alberto Santana to slot home and send the Serie A side into the quarter-finals and leave the Goodison side reflecting on what might have been.

Their greatest regret will be that they didn’t go on to win the tie in normal time after dominating. Time and again, chances were created only to be spurned, either by poor finishing or the heroics of Frey.

Everton had never before overturned a first-leg deficit in Europe, with a League Cup win against Rotherham United in 1992 the only time they had previously achieved the feat in any competition. But unlike the Carling Cup semi-final here against Chelsea in January, there was a genuine belief from the first whistle that an unlikely comeback was possible.

Johnson’s 10th goal of the season early on gave greater hope, and sparked a barrage of constant pressure on the visitors’ goal.

Arteta’s persistent groin problem had restricted the midfielder to a second-half cameo from the bench last week.

And the Spaniard made up for lost time in glorious fashion last night, posting an outstanding display the highlight of which was his blistering 67th-minute strike that levelled the tie.

He wasn’t alone. There were excellent performances throughout the team, notably from Leon Osman, Jagielka and Joleon Lescott.

Both teams deserve credit for their part in an engrossing spectacle. So to does the Everton support, superb from first minute to last and quick to acknowledge their team’s efforts after the shoot-out conclusion.

Their passports, though, will have to be put away, if only until the start of next season.

European qualification will surely be achieved once again, but the Goodison outfit cannot dwell on this demoralising defeat as they tussle with neighbours Liverpool in the battle for fourth and a Champions League berth.

Both Moyes and Phil Jagielka had spoken before the game about the imperative being not to concede an early goal, rather than scoring one.

But the Goodison side managed to succeed on both counts when, backed by an impassioned home crowd, their lively opening was rewarded with the opener on 16 minutes.

Steven Pienaar’s cross from the left should have been routine for Frey, but the Fiorentina goalkeeper inexplicably failed to gather and the ball hit the surprised Johnson on the chest and flew in.

Everton then posed plenty of questions with their perennial threat from set-pieces and the pace and trickery of front duo Johnson and Yakubu, but Fiorentina held firm for the remainder of the half.

Frey in particular seemed intent on making amends for his earlier blunder with a string of fine saves.

His first, repelling a 25-yard Arteta free-kick, was more for the benefit of the cameras than anything else.

But the keeper was alert to parry Osman’s powerful drive in the 26th minute after referee Eric Braamhaar waved play on when Johnson collided with Manuel Pasqual inside the area.

The Goodison Park crowd were outraged, but television replays suggested the official was right to deny the penalty claim.

Frey was at it again nine minutes later when, after Yakubu had been fed by Arteta, the Nigerian bamboozled Alessandro Gamberini and struck a low shot that was blocked by the Fiorentina goalkeeper, with Tomas Ujfalusi completing the clearance before Pienaar could pounce.

Arteta’s accurate set-piece delivery was a major weapon in Everton’s armoury, but both Jagielka and Johnson were wasteful when heading over.

Everton were momentarily celebrating a second on the stroke of half-time when Yakubu slotted home Arteta’s cutback, only for the Spaniard to have been in an offside position as he retrieved the loose ball after Johnson’s shot from his initial cross was parried by Frey.

The only time Howard was called into action was to hold on to Martin Jorgensen’s side-foot volley from a rare Pasqual sortie from the back.

Fiorentina had two fortunate escapes at the start of the second half. An Arteta corner from the right deflected off Marco Donadel and then Jorgensen before being hacked clear by Pasqual off the line, and Ujfalusi was fortunate to escape conceding a penalty after the ball struck his hand inside the area.

It took a special goal to break down the Italian resistance. And who else but Arteta to score it, accepting a crossfield pass from Yakubu in the 67th minute and taking advantage of the Fiorentina defence sitting back by moving forward and unleashing an angled 25-yard shot that fizzed into Frey’s bottom left-hand corner.

Everton sensed the game was there for the taking. But they were twice denied in the 71st minute by the acrobatics of Frey, the keeper stopping a Joseph Yobo toe-poke from yet another Arteta corner and then alert to push out Yakubu’s header from Neville’s deep right-wing cross.

Fiorentina, though, finally roused themselves in attack and caused Goodison hearts to flutter 14 minutes from time when substitute Giampaolo Pazzini’s header from a Riccardo Montolivo cross was brilliantly palmed over by Howard, and Dainelli nodded Jorgensen’s subsequent corner wide.

Extra-time arrived and neither team seemed particularly keen on penalties, the action end to end. Pazzini dragged an effort wide and Fiorentina hounded out Johnson and then Yakubu after a mistake had given the former a run on goal.

Pazzini was then narrowly wide with a low shot with two minutes remaining, and Everton substitute Victor Anichebe was similarly off target but the dreaded shoot-out couldn’t be avoided.