Halftime Thoughts - Everton lead Wolves 2-0 in a stronger attacking performance than we have seen from them in a handful of games. The key will be staying aggressive and ensuring they keep the foot on the gas in the second half.
45+7’ - Wolves are attacking down the Blues’ left, but there’s the halftime whistle.
45+5’ - Ndiaye strong on Ait-Nouri near the goalline, and it goes out for an Everton goalkick.
45+3’ - Everton doing a lot of sideways passing followed by a deep ball in. This one eventually make sit way to Doucs, and for some reason he takes a potshot from about thirty yards out. Doesn’t even catch it well.
45’ - Cunha’s low dipping ball into the box is left by Larsen, but Pickford has his full focus on the ball.
Six plus minutes to be added on here, given that we’ve had two goals and a VAR review too.
43’ - Chance! Mangala wins a bouncing ball, McNeil adjusts himself and fires off a left-footed volley that looks like it’s headed goalwards until a Wolves head deflects it for a corner.
McNeil inswinger, Tarky runs away from Lemina and heads it down... straight at Sa. Oooh.
40’ - Wolves are playing their way through the Toffees’ press, but Everton are holding firm in the back.
35’ - Now Doucs and Mangala foul Ait-Nouri and Wolves have a freekick chance of their own. Hit long and past Dawson.
33’ - Another freekick, same position as the second (disallowed) goal. Taken short before McNeil swings it in, partly cleared, Myko fires off a shot, blocked, falls to Mangala and he fires home!! This is 2-0 and the ref will not disallow it for whatever reason, the midfielder makes amends for his part in Tarky’s goal.
32’- Everton lucky again. Deep diagonal finds Doherty in space, his volleyed cross is met by a wide open Larsen, neither Branthwaite nor Tarky knew what was going on and the striker doesn’t make good contact.
29’ - Tarky with both nostrils plugged up to stop the bleeding gives Strand Larsen way too mush space and he lets off a narrow angle shot that Pickford saves, and the Blues can clear.
26’ - Cunha with what looks like a premeditated elbow into Tarky’s face, nothing from the ref. The Everton player needs medical attention, but should be fine to continue.
24’ - Mangala sees Young’s run on the right, the veteran with a low ball across goal but it eludes about four blue shirts in the box.
20’ - Ball comes to DCL and he fires off a shot that Sa saves. Blues were looking to make it count quickly after getting one chalked off, lovely ball from McNeil to find DCL running clear.
15’ - Dawson bowls over DCL on the run and it’s another freekick to the Blues, a little closer to the touchline. McNeil delivers a whipped inswinger, Tarkowski just gets his head to it with three defenders around him, and beats Sa, it’s 2-0!!!
The goal is being reviewed as Mangala was in an offside position, but did he really interfere with play? He does look to have boxed Lemina out. The referee Michael Salisbury goes over to the monitor and will disallow the goal, so it remains 1-0 to the Blues.
10’ - Doucs wins the header deep in the Wolves half, DCL is fouled and ball comes back to Doucs who hits it wildly over. He was offside, but the ref has given a freekick for the original foul on the striker, just outside the box.
Ashley Young is standing over it with determination, hits it low and beats Sa!!! Sneaks it in around the wall and at the far post, 1-0 to the Toffees!!!
8’ - Pickford! Cunha pounces on a loose ball and gets it back to him, and fires off a shot that the England #1 does very well to save low on his left.
4’ - Miscommunication between Dawson and Sa, but Everton not near the ball to take advantage.
Now Wolves win a corner off a Tarkowski block. Wild shot from Gomes, and the Blues have a let-off.
3’ - Ndiaye working hard and steals the ball off Cunha on the edge of the attacking third, only for Doucoure to promptly lose the ball and concede a foul.
2’ - Trouble already. Ait-Nouri screams down the left wide open, and his cutback is perfect to Strand Larsen, but the Dane makes a right hash of it. Phew.
1’ - We’re underway!
Relish that air-raid siren and then the dulcet notes of Z Cars ringing out in the Grand Old Lady as we are into the last few games to be played at Goodison Park, especially a night game under the lights.
Speaking of the lights at Goodison, did you catch this?
Everton - Sean Dyche goes even more conservative, dropping Lindstrom to make room for Mangala. At least this will put McNeil back out wide.
Wolves - Gary O’Neil makes four changes from the weekend.
Everton need to win, now. No more ifs, buts and any other variety of excuses. With the difficult schedule they face for the next month or so, the Toffees will need to grab as many points as they can from home games, especially against teams around them in the table.
Wolves endured the most difficult start to a Premier League season ever (according to the statisticians), which is about the only reason they are behind the Blues in the table. However, with Matheus Cunha scoring worldies every other week, they are looking to climb up the standings.
The Everton fanbase is depressed and frustrated, and a poor start today will only serve to demoralize the Goodison crowd further, and they will end up taking it out on the players on the pitch.
Competition: Premier League Matchweek 14
Date and start time: Wednesday, December 4th at 11:30 a.m. PT / 2:30 p.m ET / 7:30 p.m. BST
Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Capacity: 39,572
Weather: 47°F/8°C, light rain, 85% chance of precipitation, 16 mph winds
TV: Peacock - United States ; Amazon Prime Video - United Kingdom;Fubo - Canada, beIN Sports HD 6, SuperSport Football Plus ROA
Radio: evertontv
Live stream:Fubo, ESPN Play Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now, RUSH, Disney+ Hotstar VIP, JioTV, Disney +
Gamethread: There will be a live blog for this game, with our coverage continuing after the final whistle with the match recap and reaction.
*Royal Blue Mersey has affiliate partnerships and may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links provided.
Information from LiveSoccerTV.com
The Wolves completed the double over the Toffees last season, winning 1-0 at Goodison and 3-0 at Molineux. In fact, the Blues have failed to beat Wolves in their last six games, with five defeats and a draw, scoring thrice and conceding ten times. Yikes.