Everton 4-0 AEK Athens
Louis Saha: a red card for the blues' substitute
Also In The News
|
By Adam Leveridge
With less than a week to go until Renault answers race-fixing allegations at a |  |
Wednesday, 16, Sep 2009 09:03
By James Christie
Everton kicked off their Europa League campaign in style with a 4-0 victory over Group I rivals AEK Athens on a night when Toffees' substitute Louis Saha was sent off for violent conduct.
It was a red-letter evening for British football as it was the first professional game in Britain to have an additional assistant referee (standing rather sheepishly without flags) behind each goal-line.
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, the left midfielder signed for £9 million from Lokomotiv Moscow, might also have good reason to remember the match.
It took the debutant, who David Moyes has compared with Everton legend Kevin Sheedy, only ten minutes to make his mark when his fine swinging corner found Joseph Yobo unmarked inside the six-yard box and parallel with the far goal post.
The Nigerian needed no second invitation to head the ball into the net and put Everton 1-0 up.
Goal number two also came from a Bilyaletdinov corner, Sylvain Distin showing quick reflexes to score with his right foot when a left-footed shot appeared to be the easier option.
The home side did not sit on their lead, laying siege to the Athenian half and finding plenty of Achilles heels amongst the yellow-shirted defenders.
The game was pretty much killed off nine minutes before half time when Steven Pienaar decided to shoot rather than advance into the Greek team's penalty area.
It was a wise choice as the South African's brilliantly-struck low shot rocketed past the despairing AEK goalkeeper, leaving the goal-line referee's assistant in no doubt that a goal had been scored.
The man who provided the assist? Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, of course.
Going 3-0 behind didn't seem to faze the passionate Greek supporters; they bizarrely greeted the goal by turning their back to the pitch and raising the volume of their cheering.
AEK's Carlos Araujo also turned his back on the action after 54 minutes, back-heeling Distin to leave the referee no option but to red-card him.
Everton were more interested in kicking the ball and but for a fine save Pienaar would have hit a spectacular second goal when he skilfully hit the ball goal-ward at passing pace from the same distance that he scored from in the first half.
If it had been him and not his replacement Louis Saha who found himself with the ball at his feet in the 78th minute it could well have been 4-0 earlier. How the former Manchester United striker managed to shoot over the cross-bar while standing underneath it defied belief.
Joao Alves Jo showed more presence of mind than his colleague when he helped Everton increased their lead eight minutes from the final whistle after Ayegbeni Yakubu toyed with the Athens defenders on the left of the penalty box.
Saha couldn't get on the score sheet but he did make one more contribution to the night - raising his hand near an AEK defender's face after a goalmouth tussle.
The referee also raised his hand, flourishing a red card which will mean Saha, who could well have been the victim of over-dramatic Greek theatre, is to miss Everton's next Europa League fixture, against FC Barta.