Everton 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday: Instant Reaction

Everton beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 in the Third Round of the Carabao Cup thank to two early goals from beleaguered striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Marco Silva’s Blues have been under tremendous pressure following two straight losses in the Premier League, but eased that by refusing to make it a Yorkshire double by disposing of Wednesday this evening with 4,500 Toffees in attendance at Hillsborough.

The manager, wary of a visit from Manchester City on Saturday, didn’t keep too many of his regular starters in, but did make five changes.

Fans have been clamoring for Alex Iwobi to get a shot at the #10 position, and against inferior opposition he seemed to make the most of the opportunity being involved in the action for most of the game, combining well with Bernard who does quite like to cut in often.

Calvert-Lewin struck early, controlling a cross into the box from Djibril Sidibe before hammering home off the underside of the crossbar in the sixth minute.

He made it two just minutes later, taking advantage of a slide-rule pass from Iwobi from the left and slotting home to put the Blues in full control of this fixture.

The early goals again confirmed that our resident tactician Adam’s observation that the Blues struggle the most breaking down a low block when they don’t score in the first twenty minutes, an analysis that was proved again over the weekend.

There were still some heartstopping moments in this one though, especially from setpieces, with the home side wasting their best chance late on heading over from a corner with Sidibe and Yerry Mina both beaten and Jordan Pickford livid. Crosses into the box both from open play and setpieces have been an issue since last season, and it doesn’t appear that they have been resolved by any stretch of the imagination.

The Colombian defender did survive a late injury scare too when a Wednesday player went in on him with both feet, but Mina came back on sprinting to a howl of derision from the home support.

Theo Walcott, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Morgan Schneiderlin all got a few minutes late on too, but with Moise Kean not playing at all you have to believe he is already in the starting XI for the City game over the weekend.

In the end it was mostly comfortable, and the main target which was to progress to the next round achieved.