Roberto Martinez hails ‘exceptional goals’ in Everton victory

Roberto Martinez praised the exceptional quality of Everton's two goals as they progressed to the Capital One Cup semi-finals for the first time in eight years.

Gerard Deulofeu and Romelu Lukaku struck in the first half for the Toffees, with the young winger involved in both goals as Everton beat Middlesbrough 2-0 at the Riverside Stadium.

Deulofeu's individual strike opened the scoring inside 20 minutes before Lukaku dispatched the Spaniard's teasing cross to double their advantage, and Martinez was thrilled with the quarter-final performance.

"Middlesbrough are a team that gets on the ball, they are very good and play their possession," Martinez told Sky Sports.

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"But I thought we defended very well and we had good opportunities where maybe we should have taken the better option, but Middlesbrough defended those well.

"I thought, all in all, the two goals were exceptional pieces of quality, which is never something to take for granted."

Having thrown away a two-goal lead against Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday, the Everton boss was also pleased his side were able to earn a clean sheet against the Championship high-flyers.

"It was a fantastic occasion," Martinez continued. "We knew whoever you play against at home you need to be very mature, you need to perform and control the game, and I thought we did that very well, especially considering what happened at the weekend when we went 2-0 up.

"We showed a good resilience and a good maturity and that we learned a lot from the weekend, which is always pleasing.

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"To go 2-0 up and keep the clean sheet was probably the most pleasing aspect of today's performance."

Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka was happy with his side's display, and believes the result could have been different had his team pulled one back late on.

"It reminds me of playing against Arsenal last season," Karanka said. "They played with their best starting 11 and Everton did the same, I take that as a compliment.

"They were better than us, really good players in a really good team with a really good coach. That said, one goal can change a game and I thought if we had scored on 85 or 90 minutes there could have been a big finish.

"Thank you to the fans for their support, they deserve to be watching these kind of games every week."

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