Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - Blues rode their luck at times, but a strong rearguard action and a deserved clean sheet preserved the three points today.

Premier League

95’ - Final whistle! Blues win 1-0!

92’ - We’re going to have five minutes, and Kean almost settles it again! Snapshot at the nearpost goes just wide.

88’ - Kean almost gets a goal on his home debut too! Bernard on the fast break finds him, and the young striker cuts in and fires with his right from the left channel, but it goes wide.

73’ - Oh no. This is not good. Digne appears to be injured, and will be leaving. Marco Silva will be wishing he’d waited to make that Kean sub. Mason Holgate comes on, and goes out to rightback while Seamus Coleman switches to the left.

72’ - Now it’s DCL going off, and Moise Kean gets a thunderous welcome on his home debut.

63’ - Richarlison is the first sub, Blues will be disappointed to see it’s Theo Walcott coming on.

57’ - Pickford saves! Deulofeu finds Troy Deeney and his shot is saved well.

46’ - Andre Gomes gets us underway.

Halftime thoughts - Closely fought battle here, would say Everton deserve the lead though.

45’ - Blues go into the half leading 1-0.

42’ - Ooof. Richarlison completely unmarked from a Gylfi Sigurdsson freekick, right on the penalty spot and he heads over.

37’ - More drama, now in the Everton end. Gerard Deulofeu (of course) goes down after a strong challenge from Yerry Mina, and once again Mason is not interested.

26’ - Drama! Penalty or not? Dominic Calvert-Lewin gets manhandled in the box, but referee Lee Mason is not interested. That’s not very different I think from the one where DCL got hauled down at Anfield and we got a spotkick for that.

24’ - Whoa. Setpiece concern there as a Watford head meets a corner and goes off the crossbar with Jordan Pickford beaten.

10’ - BERNARD! The Lucas Digne - Bernard combination continues to be fire, with the winger cutting in and shooting, looks like it might have picked up a touch on its way in too.
The one thing missing from his game has been goals, and we have one early.

1’ - We’re underway at Goodison Park.

Lineups - A bit of a surprise, it’ll be Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Andre Gomes in the middle of the park for the Blues. Alex Iwobi and Moise Kean on the bench too.
Full lineups below.

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Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchday 2

Date and start time: Saturday, August 17th at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m ET / 3:00 p.m. BST

Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 39,572

Weather: 65°F/18°C, partly cloudy, 2% chance of precipitation, 27 kmh winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: N/A - United States; N/A - United Kingdom; DAZN, beIN Sports HD 1, SuperSport 5 Africa, ESPN Play Sur

Radio: evertontv, TalkSport Radio World

Live stream: NBC Sports Gold

Gamethread: Comments section below starting one hour before game time

Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Starting XI: Pickford; Digne, Mina, Keane, Coleman; Gbamin, Gomes; Bernard, Sigurdsson, Richarlison; Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Lossl, Holgate, Davies, Iwobi, Walcott, Kean, Tosun

Watford

Starting XI: Foster, Dawson, Deulofeu, Deeney, Cathcart, Doucoure, Hughes, Femenia, Holebas, Capoue, Pereyra

Subs: Gomes, Janmaat, Cleverley, Welbeck, Gray, Quina, Kabasele

Last Meeting

Everton didn’t do too well last season against the Hornets, needing a last-gasp freekick from Lucas Digne to snatch a 2-2 draw at Goodison Park, before losing 1-0 in a lacklustre showing at Vicarage Road.

With how thin the Blues are in the middle of the park, Watford will look to attack that weakness but remain very shaky in their own back-end too.

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Preview

Everton play their first home game of the 2019-20 campaign today, hosting Watford FC. There’s been some recent bad blood between the two sides, after Marco Silva and then Richarlison crossed over to the Blues with Gerard Deulofeu ending up at the Hornets.

In the first match of the season the Blues were relatively tight at the back in the 0-0 draw away at Crystal Palace, relying on a couple of excellent saves from Jordan Pickford to preserve the point. However, the preseason woes in front of goal continued as the toothless Toffees were unable to convert possession dominance into clearcut chances in front of goal.

Goodison Park proved a happy hunting ground for Everton to close out last season, and Silva has already been talking up the influence the supporters had at home in the spring months. Let’s make it loud today, COYB!