Leighton Baines scored 91st-minute stunner but missed penalty in shootout
Thursday 19 December 2019 06:05, UK
Leicester squeezed through to the Carabao Cup semi-finals with a 4-2 penalty shootout win over Everton after the Toffees fought back from 2-0 down in a thriller at Goodison Park.
Leicester struck twice in the space of four minutes to seemingly take the game away from Everton in the first half as James Maddison curled a fine effort with the outside of his foot (26), before Johnny Evans tucked home at close range from a corner (29).
Everton's interim manager Duncan Ferguson introduced Moise Kean at half-time after being controversially subbed on and off within 19 minutes on Sunday, and the hosts halved the deficit with 20 minutes remaining through Tom Davies' volley.
Leighton Baines then levelled with a superb long-range effort in stoppage time (90+1) to lift the roof off Goodison Park and send Ferguson down the touchline hugging the ballboy again, but Baines himself and sub Cenk Tosun missed penalties as Jamie Vardy wrapped up the shootout victory.
Leicester will now face Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup semi-finals, while Everton's wait for a first trophy since 1995 goes on.
With Carlo Ancelotti's arrival looming, the home fans were in a buoyant mood, and hoping to take a big step towards their first trophy since 1995.
But the atmosphere soon flattened as Leicester showed their clinical quality. First, Ricardo Pereira squared for Maddison just inside the box, and the England man took a touch before finding the far corner beautifully with the outside of his boot.
Then, as Everton struggled to reset, a Maddison corner was flicked on by Vardy at the near post, falling to Evans under the crossbar to poke into the empty net.
Everton should have halved the deficit shortly after as Yerry Mina headed straight at Kasper Schmeichel, completely unmarked from Bernard's free-kick.
Kean was introduced at half-time after being subbed on and off in the space of 19 minutes in Everton's 1-1 draw with Man Utd on Sunday, but it didn't have an instant reaction to the hosts' performance.
Ayoze Perez forced Jordan Pickford into a superb save from range, before the England goalkeeper did well to block Dennis Praet's poked effort after a nice Leicester move.
Marc Albrighton then struck the bar with a curling effort from range, before Everton finally came to life. They got back in it, and in-turn raised the volume at Goodison, as Davies kept his volley down from Richarlison's cross, striking into the left corner despite Schmeichel getting a hand on it.
Everton kept pressing, and it looked to be a famous night when Baines struck into the top left corner from fully 25 yards in the first minute of stoppage time.
But Baines was one of the unlucky penalty takers minutes later, along with Tosun, and although Maddison also missed Leicester's first, Ben Chilwell, Pereira, Demarai Gray and finally Vardy scored their spot-kicks to seal the victory.
Everton interim boss Duncan Ferguson: "They're obviously gutted in there. There's a lot of tears. I'm gutted for Seamus Coleman, Leighton Baines, guys like that. It was a big chance for us to get to the semi-final, we're at home and I was just really disappointed in the first-half performance. But it was understandable considering it was virtually the same team.
"I thought the second half they showed much more aggression and we put in a very good second-half performance. I thought it was going to be our night once Leighton smacks that one in the top corner, I thought it was written in the stars that we were going to come through. You get Jordan saving the first penalty, what a fantastic save, it just wasn't to be unfortunately."
On Everton's managerial situation, Ferguson said: "I don't know 100 per cent, I'll talk to the owners and the directors. I would think I'll be in on Saturday because it's such a quick turnaround. At the moment I'm preparing for Saturday. We've got a massive game and we've got to be ready."
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers: "I thought we were much the better team. First half we had good control of the game, scored two very good goals and maybe could have had more. Second half we started well, should have gone 3-0 up, unfortunate to hit the bar, and then we sort of waited on the game a little bit and out of nowhere they get the goal.
"We just had to clear our heads. We felt we were the better team but we needed to show it on the penalties and in fairness they took the penalties really well and Kasper obviously made the saves. I felt we deserved to get through. It's brilliant for the players."
Everton now host Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday at 12.30pm, while Leicester go to Man City on Saturday Night Football, live on Sky Sports Premier League at 5.30pm.
