Everton held at home by Liege
Joseph Yobo's own goal makes Standard Liege favourites to progress
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Thursday, 18, Sep 2008 10:38
Everton were held 2-2 by Standard Liege in a pulsating match at Goodison Park in the Uefa Cup first round this evening.
In a breathtaking first-half, both teams attacked with great speed and chances came at a canter. Dieudonne Mbokani opened the scoring for Liege, before Yakubu equalised. The impressive Belgium team reclaimed the lead through a Joseph Yobo own-goal. Debutant Segundo Castillo got Everton a draw with a long-range strike.
Poor Everton defending gifted Liege their opening goal. Joleon Lescott was caught napping at left-back and this allowed Wilfried Dalmat to ghost in and slide the ball across for Mbokani to tap-in, with neither Everton centre-halves picking up the striker.
Mikel Arteta went on a clever run down the left-wing before hanging the ball up to the back post, but Tim Cahill headed over the bar from a couple of yards out.
Everton should have been 2-0 down when Liege made another surging run towards the heart of the Toffees defence. Milan Jovanovic had a shot at goal from inside the Everton penalty area but his shot was blocked on the line by his own player Igor De Camargo.
Everton were under the cosh as Liege broke with speed. But the Toffees were back on level terms with a well-worked goal. Arteta played in the ball in-field to Leon Osman, whose first time ball split the Liege defence and fell to Yakubu who made no mistake with his finish.
Despite the goal, Everton were still looking ragged in defence and another defence splitting ball Liege ball found Marcos Camozzato on the right-wing and his ball into the box led to Yobo knocking the ball into his own goal, although Tim Howard could have defused the situation had he let the Nigerian know there was no real danger.
However, Goodison Park erupted less than five minutes later when debutant Castillo fired home from 25 yards out, though the Liege keeper Rorys Aragon Espinoza would have expected to save the shot which he got a firm hand on to.
The second-half was a much calmer affair as both sides seemed to settle for a draw. The closest Everton came to a winner was a header from James Vaughan which went just over the bar. Liege also had a late penalty shout waved away.