Everton’s magical FA Cup victory over Liverpool

By: 21 | February 4th, 2009

With only two minutes remaining in extra time, Dan Gosling chiseled his name into Everton’s history, scoring to give the Toffees a 1-0 victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup.

Tactically there was few surprises in the match with Everton refusing to provide any defensive openings and there were few chances prior to the break. Liverpools chances to a turn for the worse when Steven Gerrard was forced out with an injury only sixteen minutes into the match. After the restart, the Toffees slowly gained confidence and eventually went on the attack. The best chance came with twenty minutes left when Timmy Cahill dispatched the ball to Leon Osman to the right of the goal but his drive slammed against the post and the match stayed even. However the match took a heavy turn as Liverpool was forced to play a man down with fifteen minutes remaining following
Lucas Leiva being booked for the second time. Everton continued to pressure and after a number of close calls in which the ball skidded wide it looked certain the match was going to penalties. However with two minutes remaining, Dan Gosling to the left of the six-yard box, collected the ball with his left foot, out maneuvered the Liverpool defenders and bringing the ball to his right foot he curled the shot in off the far post. As the ball settled into the net, the magical night of Evertons 1-0 victory was complete.

Of special mention in this extraordinary match, while obvious Dan Gosling’s confidence and overall play was impressive when he came on for Marouane Fellaini early into the half, seventeen year-old Jack Rodwell continues to impress as an everyday player.

David Moyes said of the match on Everton TV:

“Credit the lads, we’ve probably played better games and been involved in better games, but for the supporters and everybody involved it was magic to score the goal so late on and win it.

“It was great because when they went down to ten men we had to make sure that we still did our jobs and didn’t give it away.

“It’s been hard; we’ve had three games against Liverpool so we have to remember what they’ve spent to get where they are today. So you take a little bit of pride in that.

“We were very anxious to play it out especially after the past couple of weeks and that’s what we did.”