Beto leaves the pitch after being substituted off during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on April 2, 2025
If only Beto could finish like Kevin Campbell...
Unlike Everton’s last Anfield match-winner in front of a crowd, some 25-and-a-half long years ago for Blues, their current centre-forward did not show the same kind of composure in front of the Kop when it mattered.
The Guinea-Bissau international had already put the ball in Liverpool’s net earlier on, when he’d slotted through Arne Slot’s understudy keeper Caoimhim Kelleher’s legs, only for that effort to ruled out for offside.
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However, when another inviting opportunity to break the deadlock came Beto’s way, and he went one-on-one against the Irishman, who is an able deputy but not the same kind of intimidating barrier as his world-class colleague Alisson, he fluffed his lines, firing the ball against the post.
Against such quality opponents as this – the Reds will be lifting their first League Championship in front of fans come May – you seldom get a second chance, and so it proved.
Despite much of the pre-match chatter surrounding the gulf between the clubs supposedly never being bigger, Everton did not appear fazed by the occasion, and why not given that David Moyes’ men went into the game unbeaten in the Premier League since his first game back, a run stretching some nine fixtures.
However, if the wait since 1990 seems a long time for Kopites, numerous other successes – including the behind closed doors title of 2020 and a brace of Champions League titles have cushioned the blow.
Spare a thought therefore for loyal but long-suffering Blues. On Saturday, they and their Arsenal counterparts will honour the memory of their late striker Campbell who tragically passed away aged just 54 last June.
It’s time for a new generation of Everton players to become heroes though. As much as there have been major improvements under Moyes, that’s the magnitude of the task ahead.