Everton look to advance to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but Fulham stand between them and that luxury, the long awaited cup run. Everton are in top form right now, whilst Fulham look to be in a downward trend.
Everton rewind
Burnley…not the toughest opponent but a Premier League team at that. There are no easy wins in this league but Everton made it look so. Burnley started off on the front foot for the opening 7-10 minutes but after that spurt of home field energy, Everton took over.
James Trafford would stand on his head in order to give Burnley a lifeline but in the 19th minute a towering Amadou Onana would head one home off of a McNeil corner. Six minutes later, our hero, our talisman… ole’ Michael Keano would finish a rebound off of his own shot. What a player he truly is.
Everton would go up 2-0 in the opening 25 minutes. The rest of the game would be as expected, Everton not offering much to Burnley. The game would end 2-0 and Everton would win their fourth on the bounce.
Fulham Recap
Beating Newcastle is not for everyone! Fulham would be expected to put up a decent fight against a tattered Newcastle side and it was going that way up until a controversial red card was handed to Raul Jiménez in the 14th minute for heavy a challenge. From that moment on it was all Newcastle, the flood gates would finally open in the 57th minute when a young Lewis Miley would tally his first senior goal.
Almiron and big Dan Burn would add to the score sheet and cap off the game at 3-0. Fulham would like to think the scoreline would be much different if Jimenez’s challenge were a yellow as most believe it should have been.
Everton key player
The entire back four, may be considered any easy cop-out but man oh man! The back four has been tremendous in recent weeks. The pairing of Tarkowski and Branthwaite has revolutionized Everton’s defense, they have almost become impenetrable. My man, Mykolenko has been on fire, he is slowly becoming a fan favorite but if I had to put money on one player to take advantage of this match, it would be Nathan Patterson.
We all know what Patterson can offer going forward but his defensive performance vs. Burnley should not go unnoticed. He had 5 clearances, 7 defensive actions, and 6 duels won in the 90 minutes he played. He played somewhat safe and reserved in his defensive shape, but explodes off the counter. We saw the kind of balls he can send in and the way he can dribble and make space for himself. He is a player for the future and I expect a big game from him on Tuesday.
Fulham Key player
Willian has been expectational for Fulham this season, a renaissance late in his career if you will. He has started 12 of Fulham’s 15 matches and has 5 goal involvements. He moves the ball well for Fulham and is a cog in Marco Silva’s attacking method, he is in the 88th percentile for key passes amongst wingers.
Willian also averages 4 crosses per 90 off of that left side, Fulham prefer to play down the left hand side and partially due to the skill and prowess of Willian, I expect to see that stay the same on Tuesday. I think we can all expect Mykolenko to stuff him in his pocket and call it a day.
Final thoughts!
I think a deep cup run and a possibility of silverware would do wonders for this club. It would mean so much to the players and fans who have been deprived for decades of lifting a trophy. I do not want to get ahead of myself but this team is a different team than we have seen in recent years, I believe we can beat anyone on any given Saturday. Bring on Fulham! UTFT.
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