Moyes salutes Everton's Euro heroes on progress

Dec 6 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

DELIGHTED David Moyes saluted his UEFA Cup heroes after they took a step closer towards joining Everton’s legends of past.

For the first time in 23 years, the Goodison Park outfit have secured European football after Christmas following their 1-0 home win over Zenit St Petersburg last night.

A Tim Cahill strike five minutes from time defeated the Russian champions, who were reduced to 10 men on the half-hour following the controversial sending-off of centre-back Nicolas Lombaerts.

The victory was enough to earn Everton qualification for the last 32 of the competition and, coupled with Nurnberg’s 2-1 win over AZ Alkmaar, secured top spot in Group A with a game to spare. And an ecstatic Moyes believes Everton are demonstrating how his squad is becoming increasingly accustomed to European football.

“It is a tremendous achievement for the club to have qualified for the UEFA Cup and to then win what I think is a strong group,” said the Goodison manager. “It’s a great time for everyone here and I’m delighted that we will now go into the New Year in the next round.

“The players have played really well in this tournament, and you can look at the games against Metalist, Larissa and Nurnberg before tonight.

“I think we are beginning to grasp the games a little bit and understand them. That has come from the experience of playing in the competition. We were playing the Russian champions tonight, and they are a big team to beat.”

Zenit were furious when referee Kristinn Jakobsson ruled Lombaerts had handled Cahill’s effort on the line.

Television replays later revealed the centre-back was harshly treated, although Mikel Arteta blasted the subsequent spot-kick over the bar. But while Moyes admitted Zenit were unfortunate with the decision, he insisted Everton were worthy winners.

“I didn’t think it was a red card and I didn’t think it was a penalty either,” said Moyes. “It hit the boy on the thigh and then the chest. I couldn’t really tell from the distance I was sat, but I’ve seen the television replays and it wasn’t a penalty.

“But I thought our performance was very good, and it was wave after wave of attacks from us. I thought for most of the night we dominated. I thought that our performance was better than Zenit’s and we could have had more goals.

“Zenit have one or two great players and had a really good chance in the second half, but throughout the game we had several different opportunities.

“Probably our final ball and finish was slightly off but we scored seven in our last home game against Sunderland and we made enough chances tonight but couldn’t convert them.”

Of match-winner Cahill, Moyes said: “I keep saying about Tim that that is what he does. He was a bit unlucky with the one that was cleared off the line that was given as a penalty kick.

“Tim always has that capability of scoring goals from midfield.”

Finishing top of the group means Everton will avoid a team dropping out of the Champions League, and will instead be paired with a third-placed team in another group in the draw for the next round on December 21.

Everton visit Alkmaar the previous day in their final group game, with Moyes prepared to rest several play-ers for a game that is acad-emic to the Goodison side.

”It gives us an opportunity to go and play a good Dutch team and to enjoy it,” he said. “With our busy programme, it will be important to rest one or two players.”

Unhappy Zenit manager Dick Advocaat blasted referee Jakobsson for the sending-off of Lombaert.

“The referee had a very negative influence on our performance,” he said. “It wasn’t a penalty, so it wasn’t a red card either. I asked the referee at half-time whether he knew what colour we were playing in.

“The player said he didn’t touch the ball, there players showed this, but he was very quick to give the red card and the penalty.

“But that’s what happens when you have young inexperienced referees, they are quick to make decisions. But I have to say that I am a bad loser too.”