Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - Everton have cruised into the FA Cup Fifth Round. It was not easy and looked laboured at times, and the defence still appears to have all sorts of communication issues, but they showed their quality against a clearly inferior opponent. A great start for Frank Lampard, and the Goodison Park crowd certainly appreciated it.

90+4’ - There’s the final whistle, Toffees win 4-1.

90’ - Lovely little set-up play from Tosun and Iwobi finds Townsend on his favoured left foot, and he swerves a shot home past Raya, no chance, 4-1, good night Brentford.

88’ - Richarlison coming off now, big hand for the forward. Cenk Tosun is getting some minutes now, along with Alex Iwobi as Demarai Gray is off. Gray was excellent once again.

73’ - Everton have controlled the ball well, running out the clock. Frank Lampard making some more changes now, with an eye to Tuesday’s game at Newcastle clearly.
Anthony Gordon and Vitaliy Mykolenko go off, and Andros Townsend and Jonjoe Kenny come on.

65’ - Vitaliy Mykolenko’s low cross is cut out for a corner. This one is cleared easily.

61’ - Now Godfrey steals the ball in the Bees’ box, Gray’s shot blocked for a corner.
Gray’s outswinger is headed on by a defender, and Mason Holgate heads home! 3-1 Everton!!

60’ - A Brentford counter is turned into a corner. Cleared at first, ball hoofed back into the Everton box, Mina and PIckford confusion and Toney gets a touch!! Ball bounces harmlessly though, very very lucky. Whew, the defence is looking very shaky here.

53’ - Penalty to Brentford! Through ball to Toney, Pickford comes sliding out, and Toney’s touch gets it away from the goalie and the striker goes down. Ref points to the spot, VAR will not overrule that.
Toney to take, sends Pickford the wrong way, 2-1 now.

50’ - Whoa Brentford fighting back hard. First Ivan Toney goes down in the box from a nudge by Mina, but referee Michael Oliver is not interested. Then a low cross goes through the six-yard box and no one from either team can get a touch on it.

48’ - RICHARLISON! The Brazilian connection as the forward gets to a great ball from Allan first as Raya comes streaking out, and Richy just tucks it past him into the open net. 2-0 early in the second stanza.

46’ - Second half underway, no changes that we see.

Halftime Stats -

Apologies, got caught up running errands outside the house. In summary, Everton have controlled possession, in a 3-4-3 against the visitor’s 3-5-2. Ben Godfrey went off injured - looks like his knee - and Yerry Mina came on for him and got the goal to put the Blues ahead. Pretty crappy weather at Goodison Park, strong winds swirling and a light rain falling.

It hasn’t been pretty, but Everton have looked very mobile, moving around and interchanging positions. Aside from one scrappy set-piece defence situation and one shaky back pass to Jordan Pickford which we almost paid for, Brentford have posed no threat. The Blue moved the call efficiently at times, the forwards looking to take shots instead of playing someone in, all just in less than a week of Lampard taking over.

Lineups

Preview

Everton have a new manager in place, their sixth ‘permanent’ boss in six years and the cycle starts once again. This time it’s Frank Lampard, England and Chelsea midfielder extraordinaire that we are all placing our trust in to lead us to the promised land. That journey starts with an FA Cup Fourth Round clash against Brentford, though the manager, players and the fans indeed can be excused if their sights are actually set on Tuesday when a trip to Newcastle beckons with the Magpies breathing down the Blues’ necks in their relegation battle.

Lampard will be without all three midfielders and forwards that were added in the January transfer window, with the trio of Anwar El Ghazi, Donny van de Beek and Dele Alli all cup-tied. It gets worse though, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Abdoulaye Doucoure injured and no Tom Davies or Fabian Delph available either.

Visitors Brentford might not have manager Thomas Frank in the dugout for this game after the Dane tested positive for COVID this week. The Bees will pose a physical test for the Blues

Match Details

Competition: FA Cup Fourth Round

Date and start time: Saturday, January 5 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: 49°F/9°C, light rain, 77% chance of precipitation, 27 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: N/A - United States; N/A - United Kingdom; N/A - Canada, beIN Sports Xtra 2, beIN Sports MAX 4, SuperSport GOtv Select 2, SuperSport Football Plus ROA

Radio: evertontv

Live stream: Fubo, ESPN+, Sportsnet.ca, ESPN Play Caribbean, Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now, RUSH,

Gamethread: Live blog above starting about one hour before game time

*Royal Blue Mersey has affiliate partnerships and may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links provided.

Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Last Meeting

The two sides just met in the league recently, with Everton falling to a 1-0 loss thanks to a penalty conceded in the first half.