Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
EUROPA LEAGUE
RATINGS
Pickford
Couldn’t keep out Sardinero Corpa’s goal, no chance with second
Kenny
Started the match, after impressing on Saturday, and was solid
Holgate
Increasingly composed at the heart of the Blues’ defence
Williams
Blundered by giving the ball away for the opening goal
Baines
The captain showed all his experience on the left for the Toffees
Gueye
Ran Everton’s midfield before being taken off at half-time
Schneiderlin
Was quiet and needed to impose himself a lot more in midfield
Davies
Had a shot saved by Bruno Vale and made a lively contribution
Sigurdsson
Had a free-kick saved and linked up well for the Blues’ attacks
Ramirez
Put Yuste under pressure in the build-up to Everton’s equaliser
Rooney EVERTON suffered more embarrassment in Europe after being denied victory in the 89th minute by a Apollon Limassol team reduced to 10 men.
The Blues had already been scarred by their opening 3-0 drubbing by Atalanta and this poor result will do little to improve Ronald Koeman’s mood.
His men looked set for victory after Wayne Rooney and Nikola Vlasic scored following Apollon’s early opener.
But the Cypriot side shook off the dismissal of Valentin Roberge, and Hector Yuste headed home Adrian Sardinero’s free-kick to salvage a point for the visitors and leave Everton bottom of the group.
Everton play
Lyon next and their European campaign looks like it will not last beyond December.
Boss Koeman had demanded in his team talk that his players wake up and stop conceding first, as they had done in six of their last seven games going into this tie.
It seemed they were not listening, gifting Apollon the lead on 12 minutes.
The normally-reliable Ashley Williams played the ball straight to Anton Maglica on the right and he crossed for Sardinero to score, despite keeper Jordan Pickford getting a hand to his shot.
Whatever had afflicted Williams was contagious because Limassol’s Yuste dropped an even bigger clanger nine minutes later to present Rooney with the equaliser.
He received the ball from keeper Bruno Vale and when he tried to play it back to him under pressure from Sandro Ramirez, succeeded only in finding Rooney who knocked it into an empty net.
It was Rooney’s third goal on his return to Goodison Park but soon after he had to have his left wrist bandaged when it was trodden on as he landed having attempted an overhead kick.
He shrugged off the pain to go close to a second goal with a curling shot that went just wide before Vale saved from Tom Davies and then pushed away a Gylfi Sigurdsson free-kick. Apollon, who lost 6-1 at Anfield on their last visit to Merseyside in 1992, were not overawed and Antonio Jakolis forced a save from Pickford with a shot.
Everton were making hard work of this, moving through the gears with all the poise of a learner driver.
Their second goal through Vlasic was somewhat fortunate, the ball ricocheting to Sigurdsson who played in the Croatia Under-21 striker to finish coolly past Vale.
Roberge’s red card came four minutes from time for a stamp on Dominic Calvert-lewin.
That appeared to signal the end for Apollon and Everton thought the game was won. They were wrong.