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Fulltime thoughts - Much, much better second half effort from the Blues, but once again we are left here thinking “What might have been” had we not had that abysmal first half and the consecutive brain farts that led to the two goals the Foxes scored.
Oh well, focus on the Premier League again over this holiday period as Carlo Ancelotti is expected to take over for the Burnley game on Boxing Day. The Blues also travel to Anfield again for the FA Cup game on January 5th, the last chance at a trophy this season.

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Here’s the full penalty shootout, if your heart can take it.

Vardy can send the Foxes into the semis.. and he does, calm as you like. Everton are out of the Carabao Cup. Leicester City win 4-2 on penalties as Schmeichel’s saves on Baines and Tosun render Pickford’s save from Maddison moot.

Pickford goes left, and is just inches from Gray’s shot, 3-1 Foxes.
DCL has to score.. standing on the spot and he pushes it right by the post, goal. 3-2.

Perreira steps up, Pickford goes left and he goes right, 2-0 Foxes.
Holgate hammers it in, middle of the goal, top shelf. 2-1 now.

Chilwell sends Pickford the wrong way, right by the post.
Baines steps up, and poor penalty as well, saved again. Oh man. Blues down 1-0.

Maddison goes first, and Pickford saves to his right!
Tosun goes the same way, and it’s also saved! Poor shot there, no power.

Penalty shootout. Oh the drama, Big Dunc can’t watch, and we can’t either, eek.

90+4’ - Davies gives away the ball in midfield with the clock ticking down and Leicester try to find Vardy but he’s offside, whew. There’s the final whistle, and Baines’ first goal in two years takes this to penalties.

90+2’ - It’s going to be four plus minutes added on, and remember, this goes straight to penalties if it’s tied.

90’ - BAINES!!!! What a blast from the past. The venerable leftback charges forward, and from just outside the box FIRES IN AN ABSOLUTE SCREAMER WITH THE OUTSIDE OF HIS LEFT BOOT AND IT’S ONLY GOING IN ONE PLACE.. THE TOP CORNER!!

88’ - Gordon’s cross attempt blocked by Chilwell, then he wins a corner off Maddison. Ball comes into the box, Mina goes down and then Vardy hacks Coleman down but Moss is not interested. That looked like a foul, and a penalty.

84’ - Young ‘un Anthony Gordon is going to get a few minutes! He comes on for Richarlison who has to be exhausted.

83’ - Soyuncu with an almost fatal mispass, Richarlison takes and crosses but Evans just gets to it before it falls to Kean in the box.

80’ - Perreira runs into Baines right next to the assistant referee who has nothing to say about it, but Jon Moss gives Leicester a freekick. It’s a great ball into the box by Maddison but cleared somehow.
Going to be a battle of the Turks in the Leicester half now, with Çağlar Söyüncü also on.

77’ - Second change for the Blues is Cenk Tosun coming on for Iwobi. Expect to see a barrage of balls pumped into the Leicester box.

73’ - Everton revitalized now. Holgate with a long clearance from a blocked Vardy shot, Richarlison finds Kean on the right, he holds his marker off and crosses into the box and DCL rises highest, but heads over. Argh.

70’ - Davies goal! 2-1 now! What a volley from the midfielder! Coleman found Richarlison down the right, his cross was met first time by Davis from about the penalty spot, no chance for Schmeichel.

66’ - Coleman has now caught the Keaneitis bug that’s going around, tries to go around Vardy as the last man instead of passing to Pickford to clear. Vardy gets the ball and his backheel finds Albrighton in the box, his shot is curled over and around the goalie, and off the top of the bar. Whew.

64’ - Leicester playing more like the side that’s down two than the home side. The crowd are actually more interested in the game than the Everton players.

58’ - A quick break from Iwobi and DCL finds Kean just outside the box on the right, his shot is blocked and goes out for a corner. Baines inswinging corner is barely inches from Mina’s dipping head, and the chance goes begging from two yards out.
Richarlison giveaway in the middle creates a chance for Dennis Praet but Pickford kicks it away.

51’ - Everton are still using the high press but the Foxes are beating it too easily. Perez with a shot from distance, and it needs a flying save from Pickford. The corner is taken by Maddison but cleared.
Now Keane with a terrible back pass to Pickford and the goalie has to hustle to clear that with Vardy hovering. Okay that’s enough, surely Keane can’t go on today can he?

49’ - Keane easily pushed off the ball by Vardy, but the Blues are lucky not get punished as Baines blocks the shot. Michael Keane is just having an awful, awful day at the office.

46’ - Big Dunc has pulled the trigger at the break, Bernard is off and Kean is on. The Italian has gone into DCL’s spot with the #9 going out wide to Bernard’s spot.

Halftime Thoughts - Everton’s press if quite ineffective against Leicester’s passing, and overcommitting is stretching the Blues and leaving gaps. Also, Davies, Holgate and Iwobi have been pretty awful, might as well yank two of them off and put on Dennis Adeniran and Anthony Gordon.

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45’ - Halftime and a few boos ring out. Deserved.

44’ - Iwobi with a poor giveaway trying to be too cute in the middle, and Mina has to give away a corner to quell that threat. Pickford gathers at the second attempt.

42’ - Leicester happy to let the ball stay in the middle, and will look for gaps as the Blues push forward.

36’ - The Blues have no luck whatsoever. Freekick from a prime position is put into the box and an unmarked Mina heads straight at Schmeichel.
Another freekick taken quickly and Richarlison’s shot is just wide at the far post. The Blues are definitely trying, the crowd noise has ratcheted up too.

31’ - Both goals conceded had hallmarks of the same errors Everton made during Marco Silva’s tenure, who are we going to blame now?

29’ - Foolish corner conceded as the Blues try to press but are chasing shadows. Corner flicked on by Vardy at the front post and Jonny Evans had an easy tap-in at the backpost. 2-0 and Everton teetering on collapse here.

26’ - 1-0 Leicester. Davies sliding block falls fortunately for Perreira, who finds James Maddison unmarked on the edge of the box, and he fires home rather easily. Holgate lost his man badly there, Schneiderlin crucified often for similar mistakes.

23’ - Iwobi has embraced his role as a wide player in the 4-4-2 particularly well today, he’s been full of running and snapping into tackles. He saw what happened to Kean on Sunday.
Davies with an ill-advised backpass to Yerry Mina, who completely fluffs his clearance and gives away a corner, cleared by Seamus Coleman though.

20’ - Ref Jon Moss simply does not like Keane, one assumes. Again he’s fouled by Vardy after he wins the ball ahead of the striker and play is waved on.
Bernard tries an aerial clearance and kicks the bottom of Perez’ foot, going down with a scream. He’s trying to walk it off.

16’ - Michael Keane gets to the ball and then puts it out for a corner as he is pushed in the back by Vardy. The corner is somewhat cleared before Perreira makes a run and beats Baines on the Everton left - his cross is left by Vardy for Perez and he fires over. Whew.

15’ - Still nothing. Everton maintaining their shape and discipline, Foxes still stroking it around but not getting any penetration.

10’ - Game hasn’t really take shape here yet. Everton giving up possession too easily, while the Foxes have been passing it around but neither side really creating anything.

7’ - Interesting tidbit about Big Dunc there from the commentators - the watch on his right wrist is the same as worn by his mentor and Everton Giant Howard Kendall, and the blue-and-white sweatband on his left wrist was one given to him by a sick child who idolizes him.

4’ - Kasper Schmeichel with a poor clearance straight at Alex Iwobi, it falls to Richarlison but he can only tuck it wide.

1’ - Underway and the Blues win an early corner on the left. Dominic Calvert-Lewin flicks it wide.
Ferguson wanted a bear-pit at Goodison today and the fans look and sound up for it.

Lineups - The lineups are out and Everton have gone full strength.. umm, whatever passes as our first XI right now I guess. No subterfuge this time though, with Holgate shown in the middle alongside Tom Davies. Whatever bug Gylfi Sigurdsson and Djibril Sidibe picked up is serious enough that they are either still ill or not fit enough to be even on the bench today.
Moise Kean is on the bench though, hopefully whatever issue Ferguson had with him has been resolved amicably. Fellow youngsters Dennis Adeniran and Anthony Gordon make the bench, with Cuco Martina the only defender among the substitutes.
Also interesting is that since Ferguson took over Maarten Stekelenburg has been the sub goalie ahead of Jonas Lossl, both goalies have been seen in training and Lossl doesn’t look injured.

Preview

Duncan Ferguson today leads the Blues into the quarterfinals of the Carabao Cup, a relic of the last Everton side to lift a trophy at Wembley. He will have a chance to get the Toffees on the way to setting that right, but will face a formidable opponent first in Leicester City.

Under his charge in the caretaker role Everton beat Chelsea 3-1 at Goodison Park, before coming away from Old Trafford with a 1-1 draw on Sunday.

Big Dunc has not been helped by the injury and illness situation that has plagued his squad, forcing him to use central defender (a position the Blues are not particularly well-endowed at either) Mason Holgate as a defensive midfielder where he did well.

Leicester City are flying high this season, sitting comfortably in second place four points clear of Manchester City who they take on this weekend in the Premier League. With that fixture in mind Brendan Rodgers might look to rotate his side and give a few fresh faces some game time.

Match Details

Competition: Carabao Cup Quarter Finals

Date and start time: Wednesday, December 18th at 11:45 a.m. PT / 2:45 p.m ET / 7:45 p.m. BST

Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 39,572

Weather: 47°F/8°C, wind and rain, 83% chance of precipitation, 25 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: N/A - United States; N/A - United Kingdom; DAZN - Canada, beIN Sports HD 1, 2 & 13; SuperSport 5 Africa

Radio: evertontv, BBC Radio

Live stream: ESPN+, SKY GO Extra, ESPN Play Sur, ESPN Play Caribbean, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now

Gamethread: Live blog above starting one hour before game time

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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Starting XI: Pickford, Baines, Mina, Keane, Coleman; Iwobi, Davies, Holgate, Bernard; Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison

Subs: Stekelenburg, Martina, Adeniran, Gordon, Tosun, Kean, Niasse

Leicester City

Starting XI: Schmeichel, Ricardo, Morgan, Evans, Chilwell, Ndidi, Praet, Maddison, Perez, Albrighton, Vardy

Subs: Ward, Justin, Soyuncu, Choudhury, Gray, Barnes, Iheanacho

Last Meeting

The Blues traveled to King Power Stadium just a few weeks ago, putting in a solid 60 or so minutes where they frustrated the hosts while taking the lead, but the same problems that afflicted the side during Marco Silva’s tenure came back to haunt them, with errors leading to two goals, including a winner for Leicester with virtually the last kick of the game.