Everton 4-2 Lincoln City: Instant Reaction | Belter

If you could, please hold a moment. I still need to catch my breath.

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Okay. I’m back. Whew. I don’t know that this is necessarily a good thing considering the level of competition, but Everton traveled to Lincoln City for their 2nd round Carabao Cup match and “treated” us to a wildly entertaining affair in the rain.

Fabian Delph, Alex Iwobi, Moise Kean, and Djibril Sidibe were all afforded their full debuts, and it was Sidibe’s early error (along with Mason Holgate’s lapse in judgment) that allowed the Imps to go ahead after just twenty seconds.

The Blues took awhile to grow into the game, and Lincoln certainly provided an impressive amount of resistance (fair play to Bruno Andrade’s incredible second half goal), but in the end the onslaught was too much for the lower level side.

Lucas Digne tied the match in the first half with one of the best free kicks you’ll see anywhere around the world all year long. He later provided a sublime assist for Everton’s fourth, a powerful Richarlison header. Sandwiched in between those two markers were a Gylfi Sigurdsson penalty and Alex Iwobi header. (Watch all the goals on our live blog, link below)

While there are certainly concerns and complaints to take away from the win, it’s a bit hard to focus on them after such a scintillating match. Everton’s frightening depth was on full display, and while there remain plenty of kinks to work out when it comes to open play attacking (two of today’s four scores were from dead ball situations), give it time. Iwobi and Kean provide a completely different look to what we’re used to, and they need an adjustment period.

This team has the talent, and in the second half today, they showed that. The domestic cups are something that Everton should aspire to compete in, and this was a good first step. Marco Silva has work to do, but engineering a comeback win for the first time since December 2017 is alright by me.