Through to the Semi-Finals! Report By Simon Mack

Everton 2-2 Leicester City

(Leicester win 4-2 on penalties)

18^th December 2019 7:45pm

Goodison Park

Jamie Vardy scored the winning penalty as the foxes set up a semi-final clash with Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup.

City boss Brendan Rodgers picked a stronger side than many had anticipated for the trip to Merseyside with Albrighton being added wide left and club captain Wes Morgan replacing Soyunchu from the side that drew at the weekend, and with an almost full strength side on the park the foxes looked to have shaken off their frustrations of the weekend to return to the exceptional standards fans have become used to of late.

The lead was secured by city inside the first half an hour after a period of dominant play lead to James Maddison finding himself in space on the edge of the Toffees box and his sublime strike across a helpless Pickford in the Everton goal found the far corner.

Just 3 minutes later as a corner was swung in by James Maddison Michael Kean lost Jonny Evans completely on the 6 yard line and the Northern Irishman was afforded a free hit at goal which he smashed home to double city’s lead and send the foxes in 2 up at half time.

Everton had shown some flashes of quality in the first half but in the 2^nd having had a talking to from interim manager Duncan Ferguson the toffees seemed to return with a resolve to fight for their lives and as the 2^nd period aged you could feel the balance of the game levelling out. Marc Albrighton struck the bar with a superb long range effort that would have killed the game dead but with 20 minutes left and Everton knocking at the city door with more purpose and frequency the ball was crossed along the edge of the Leicester box and academy product Tom Davies was on hand to side foot the ball past Schmeichel to give the home side hope.

A final 10 minute bombardment from the toffees seemed to be on the cards and city gaffer Rodgers looked to see the game out late by adding Soyunchu as an additional centre half in place of Albrighton and soon after the tackling prowess of Hamza Choudhury was added in place of Dennis Praet.

The foxes must have thought they had ridden out the storm until an evergreen Leighton Baines found space to the left of the city 18 yard area and struck a speculative shot that rocketed into the top left corner past a helpless Kasper Schmeichel.

90 minutes done and with the game all square Carabao Cup ties go immediately to penalties and so spot kicks it was to decide the fate of what had been a superb match to watch. The resulting shoot out saw Schmeichel make 2 superb saves from Everton’s first 2 spot kicks and the foxes had the upper hand in the spot kicks from that point on. Jamie Vardy put city through as he stepped up to take the last of city’s 5 x 12 yard dead ball rockets and coolly slotted home to send the visiting team into the semi-finals.

MOTM? City had been back closer to their high level of performance again in this cup tie which was hugely encouraging to see on the eve of that massive trip to the Etihad. For me whilst James Maddison scored the first and had a cracking 90 minutes you cannot take away Kasper Schmeichel’s immense performance between the sticks for the shoot out and in my opinion his bravery and skill right when needed gave him the nod as the man of the match.

The semi-final draw pits the 2 Manchester giants together leaving a midlands second semi-final with Leicester having a home tie first up in the 2 legged affair with Aston Villa. On balance a decent draw for the foxes who are now just 2 games from Wembley as Brendan Rodgers first full season in charge continues to be hugely successful as he weaves his magic to consistently get the very best from the foxes hugely talented squad.