Goodison Analysis: Heartbreak for Everton but no issue with De Bruyne goal
Everton fans held out hope in the FA Cup quarter-final for 84 minutes before it was cruelly snuffed out.
Man City got a huge slice of luck with the opener, too, after a quite brilliant save from Joao Virginia.
The second, from Kevin De Bruyne in injury time, was disputed heavily by the Everton players but that was more an outpouring of emotion than anything actually rooted in what happened in the build-up.
In real-time it might have looked different but you can see from the stills below that there was nothing wrong with the goal.
Riyad Mahrez had to go for the ball. You can see from the shot below that it looks like he’s a big favourite to get there first and it’s hard for both players to judge the bounce of the ball.
Mahrez ended up going for the ball with his foot but, seeing Yerry Mina come in with his head, pulled out from the challenge. Perhaps he had seen the Rangers game from Thursday night and knew what could happen if he went in with his foot that high.
Mina cleared with his head but didn’t get anywhere near the height he would have wanted and it dropped straight to Rodrigo.
The big problem for Everton was created by Gylfi Sigurdsson who could have easily cleared the ball from Rodrigo with his head.
Instead, for some reason, he tried to get it with his foot and missed it completely. Man City runners were already anticipating what was going to happen.
De Bruyne latched onto the ball and the finish was emphatic.
The Everton players weren’t happy but when they watch the goal back they’ll know there was nothing wrong with it.
The only thing you could possibly say is that Mina would have got more on his header if he wasn’t worried about getting kicked in the head, but you’re not going to get a free-kick for that.
Everton can be proud of the performance they put in.
It was a heartbreaking way to lose but the result was a fair one and Everton know the level they need to aspire to if they want to be pushing for a Premier League title.
There’s only one team in England at that level at the moment, possibly in the whole of Europe.
In other Everton news, France manager Didier Deschamps believes that Lucas Digne is often overlooked because he plays for Everton.