Many an Everton manager has tried to end a wait for silverware that now dates back almost three decades. Now, at a point when even the most pessimistic inside Goodison Park had reasons to wonder if it might be their year, a former Everton manager has extended it. Marco Silva’s second win at Goodison this season and third in 2023 means Fulham instead advance to the League Cup semi-finals, for the first time in their history. The draw may have been opening up for Everton, a run of 10 wins in 14 games suggesting they had the form to carry them to glory, but this was an anti-climactic night for an in-form team.
For Everton, it must rank as the latest in the list of missed opportunities that have followed their 1995 FA Cup win. Even after they trailed for 41 minutes and hauled themselves level, they were a penalty away from winning the shootout: instead Amadou Onana rolled the tamest of spot kicks straight at Bernd Leno. When, with each side having exhausted their list of preferred takers and the shootout tied at 6-6 apiece, Idrissa Gueye put Everton’s eighth effort on to the post, Tosin Adarabioyo seized the chance to seal a semi-final spot.
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