da stake casino： To celebrate 25 years of the Premier League each week in Football Fancast we’re going to be looking back at a memorable game that took place on the corresponding date. This time out we revisit an all-Merseyside dust-up that notched up more hits than the Beatles.
da betsson： After ten years of the Merseyside derby lapsing into relative ordinariness we were due a classic at Goodison Park on November 23rd 2013. The previous clash 12 months prior at the same ground had produced four goals and controversy in the form of Luis Suarez – who else? – diving at the feet of David Moyes in celebration of an early opener. That week Moyes had suggested that the Uruguayan went down too easily and the striker’s stunt prompted the Goodison Road Stand to explode into fury at his brazenness. Suarez further failed to endear himself to the Everton faithful by clobbering Kevin Mirallas, injuring the Belgian winger in the process.
If this all boded well there were even better omens to be found in each side’s recent form. With the triple S strike-force of Sterling, Sturridge and Suarez forging a fearsome understanding Liverpool supporters were starting to believe something special lay on the horizon while across Stanley Park a new dawn at Everton had resulted in only one loss so far.
Moyes was now gone and in his place Roberto Martinez had relaxed his squad into playing attractive, adventurous fare, an approach that saw back-to-back 3-2 wins in September with Romelu Lukaku scoring for fun. Consecutive 0-0 draws ahead of this encounter however suggested one of two things depending on if you viewed a glass as being half full or empty: either such openness was no longer paying dividends or Martinez had successfully managed to tighten at the back.
Post an international break Suarez had returned to England only the day before, flying back from South America on John W. Henry’s private jet while on the bench brooded Sturridge who had played a full 90 minutes for England in a friendly despite being only half-fit. That was what all the talk focused on in the game’s build-up: that Liverpool’s devilish front-line may be blunted by fatigue.
Which somewhat over-looked Philippe Coutinho and certainly the Everton defence were guilty of this neglect when they left the Brazilian in acres of space at a corner. Just four minutes in and the away side were ahead. The lead lasted barely five minutes before Mirallas bundled home from close range and with the game not even yet into its full stride the touch-paper had already been lit for an absolute rip-roarer of a derby.
Confounding the general belief that he would be uncharacteristically subdued, Suarez was everywhere. He lived for such moments; he thrived on them, and still inside the opening twenty minutes the generously-gnashered forward converted a free-kick from distance. It was a beautiful, pacy, sweeping strike that had only an exhaust port to aim for and it was a shame that so much attention stayed on his celebration to see if there would be any sort of repeat from last year. Save for a brief shush to the Gwladys Street there wasn’t.
Suarez was again central to proceedings shortly after when Mirallas scythed him down at the knees. It was clear revenge for twelve months earlier. It was clearly a red. Instead, to the shock of pretty much everyone regardless of their allegiance, Phil Dowd only flashed a yellow card.
Chances came and went. Lukaku was twice thwarted while Joe Allen somehow managed to spoon wide a six-yarder that only required redirection. For a spell this enthralling local dust-up settled into a pattern of Everton probing to little avail and the away side content to break at will.
It was a pattern that persisted until the 72nd minute when the ball broke free to Lukaku inside the box and the hit-man cleanly side-footed it beyond Mignolet. The old ground erupted into fierce, reignited belief and Liverpool were now rocking, their mind-set changing to that of containment as Everton surged forward for a famous winner. It arrived – or so they thought – ten minutes later with Lukaku again the hero guiding home a corner after easily winning a mismatched aerial duel with Allen.
In any other game that would have been that. But this was Liverpool during the 2013/14 campaign. Nobody did drama better than them.
And there was nobody better to steer a last minute equaliser into the far corner than Daniel Sturridge, even when only half-fit.
Incredibly the incidents kept on coming. Even in injury time there was a chance apiece for each side until Dowd blew for time on a modern derby classic.
What happened next?
The Toffees went on to finish fifth that season, reborn under Martinez.
Liverpool missed out on their Premier League title by just two points but won an army of admirers along the way with their breathless football. By the season’s end their Triple S strike-force boasted 65 goals between them.