Carlos Alcaraz snatches late Premier League win for Everton against Crystal Palace
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Everton's Carlos Alcaraz challenging Crystal Palace's Will Hughes for the ball in their 2-1 Premier League win.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – Everton manager David Moyes was cautiously optimistic as his side’s English Premier League revival continued on Feb 15, as they beat Crystal Palace 2-1 away thanks to a late winner from January loan signing Carlos Alcaraz.
The Toffees overcame any fatigue from their dramatic 2-2 draw with Liverpool in midweek and were able to profit twice from some poor Palace defending, with striker Beto bagging his second goal in as many games.
The win pushed Everton up two places to 13th in the table – before the Tottenham Hotspur-Manchester United clash on Feb 16 – and marked Moyes’ fourth win in six league games since returning as manager in January.
“I think Wednesday took so much out of us, today we were sort of fighting,” Moyes said.
“It took a really resilient performance to make sure we didn’t concede a second goal. There is still huge caution. But I want to start believing that we can be better, now. What I need to do and what I want is more improvement.”
It was another poor home performance for Palace who, despite finding some form in recent months, have still won only two of their league matches at Selhurst Park all season. “It’s a very disappointing result,” said Palace manager Oliver Glasner. “Now it’s again up to us to learn from it.”
Palace were the better side for the opening half hour but a lapse in concentration from a throw-in allowed new boy Alcaraz to run clear down the right wing and play in Beto, who found the bottom corner in the 42nd minute.
The first half was somewhat short on quality but the second was much more open, helped by Palace bringing on their dynamic attacker Eberechi Eze, who pushed his side forward early on.
Palace kept up the pressure after a corner in the 47th minute and defender Marc Guehi was able to cleverly flick the ball over Everton’s backline to Jean-Philippe Mateta, who duly scored his 11th league goal of the season.
Everton’s Tim Iroegbunam in action with Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi.
Yet the Eagles undid their good attacking work by failing to clear the ball late on, which allowed Ashley Young a shot on goal, before Alcaraz jumped on the resulting loose ball to score the winner in the 80th minute in his first league start since signing from Brazilian side Flamengo.
“I think he did great for us, he got the goal,” Moyes added. “I thought he’d started to tire midway through the second half... lucky I didn’t take him off.” REUTERS