Everton vs Mainz Live Blog: Woeful from the Blues, down 3-1

LIVE BLOG

Fulltime Thoughts - Trying to keep perspective and maintain an even keel right now. Everton were quite terrible for large portions of the two hours of football we played today. However, there were some faint positives and have to remember it’s only preseason.
There’ll be more in the instant reaction to come.

60’ - It’s over and we have to be grateful. This has been very, very disappointing and the Blues over both games today have been quite terrible really.

59’ - Gordon with a poor giveaway in the middle allows Quaison to get the ball with a six-lane highway between the two centrehalves, and his shot is perfectly placed in Lossl’s bottom right corner. Terrible all around.

58’ - Just a couple of minutes left, have to say can’t see where a goal would come from but a setpiece.
Pennington gives away a silly foul in the middle of the park and the home side use it to waste more time.

54’ - Fraser Hornby is now on for Schneiderlin, who hasn’t had the best day, failed to really impose himself as the pivot today.

52’ - Good run from Broadhead creates a chance, and Gordon comes across to win a corner.
Decent corner into the box but it’s cleared away.

50’ - The moment seems to have passed the Blues by.

44’ - Blues are piling on the pressure now, getting a few pops at goal that have been blocked frantically.

40’ - Game on! Lewis Gibson scores from a corner and it’s a one-goal game again.

36’ - Oh boy. 2-0 to the home side now, after a neat run and shot from Eyibil beats Lossl and into the bottom corner.

31’ - We’ve had some changes at the half, give us a second while we work those out.
Anthony Gordon is on, I think he’s been excellent this preseason. He’s in at striker for Walcott.
Callum Connolly, Matthew Pennington, Dennis Adeniran, Matty Foulds and Gordon are on for Lucas Digne, Mason Holgate, James McCarthy, Seamus Coleman and Walcott respectively.

Halftime Thoughts - Poor defending and poor execution in attack have resulted in this scoreline. The Blues have had half a dozen decent chances and fluffed their lines, and then an atrocious piece of defending by Holgate lets in their star man to score. Oof.

30’ - Just like that, the Blues are now behind. Horrendous goal conceded by some poor, poor defending. Mason Holgate lets a long ball get behind him, and Quaison is through in on goal.. Lossl comes out and tries to stop the striker but he is rounded and now it’s 1-0 to the hosts.

29’ - Oh Tom. Great interception in the middle to spring the break, but the execution is poor as Davies is caught in two minds and then his eventual pass to Mirallas is behind him and the Belgian is offside too.

27’ - Walcott guilty again of wasting a good chance. Mirallas and he completely overcook the chance trying to find the perfect angle instead of letting fly.

25’ - Good pass from Schneiderlin to Walcott playing at the striker position, but he scuffs his shot goalwards. Have to ask, why isn’t Under-18 sensation Ellis Simms not playing with the seniors during this preseason?

23’ - Quaison with a good weaving run through the middle of the defence, his shot from the left channel is saved well by Lossl, no rebounds either with players lurking.

20’ - Poor freekick conceded by Morgan Schneiderlin. Swung into the box, and header straight at Lossly - wouldn’t have counted, offside.

12’ - Back again. Blues looking decent so far.

Here we go, with Everton about to take on hosts Mainz in an hour once they’re done with the Sevilla game. The Spanish side will go home with the Opel Cup here with their win over the Blues and this 5-0 hiding their handing out to Mainz.

---

LINEUPS

Everton: Lossl, Digne, Gibson, Holgate, Coleman, Schneiderlin, McCarthy, Davies, Mirallas, Walcott, Broadhead

Mainz: 27 Zentner, 5 Boëtius, 6 Latza, 7 Quaison, 16 Bell, 18 Brosinski, 19 Niakhaté , 29 Burkardt, 34 Baku, 35 Barreiro, 40 Nebel

MATCH INFO

Competition; Round: Opel Cup (2019-20 Preseason Friendly 6)

Date & Time: Saturday, July 27, 2019, 7:00am PST, 10:00am EST, 3:00pm BST, 4:00pm local time

Venue: Opel Arena, Mainz, Germany

HOW TO WATCH, TV & LIVESTREAM

TV info: Sky Go (Germany), Sportklub 1 Croatia, LaLiga Sports TV

Stream info: evertontv (Club Members and Season Ticket Holders Only)

Broadcast info courtesy of LiveSoccerTV

---

Everton continue their preseason training in Germany today at Bundesliga side FSV Mainz’s Opel Arena. The Blues will take part in a three-team mini-tournament consisting of 60-minute matches along with hosts Mainz and Spanish side Sevilla.

The Toffees kick off the event with the first game against Sevilla, before ending the competition three hours later against Mainz. The players will certainly be feeling the effects of the training after playing last weekend and then going through a gruelling midweek game against a Wigan Athletic side determined to hack their way to promotion from the Championship this season.

Marco Silva has taken a 29-strong squad to Germany with him, in alphabetical order: Dennis Adeniran, Leighton Baines, Nathan Broadhead, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Seamus Coleman, Callum Connolly, Tom Davies, Fabian Delph, Lucas Digne, Bernard, Matthew Foulds, Lewis Gibson, Andre Gomes, Anthony Gordon, Mason Holgate, Fraser Hornby, Michael Keane, Jonas Lossl, James McCarthy, Yerry Mina, Kevin Mirallas, Matthew Pennington, Jordan Pickford, Morgan Schneiderlin, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Maarten Stekelenburg, Cenk Tosun, Theo Walcott.

After featuring in every preseason game so far, Oumar Niasse was left at home fueling speculation that a transfer could be imminent. Cenk Tosun is back in the squad which means he is close to full fitness again.

Midfielder Muhamed Besic has also been skipped for this weekend, which also fuels rumours that he could be on his way out soon too.