Report: Keane Header Earns Everton Carrow Road Success

Michael Keane spied the gap. Norwich City’s defenders had retreated close to their own goal to defend a corner from Lucas Digne – a player who Daniel Farke said pre-match Norwich were intent on stifling.

Norwich manager Farke was concerned about Digne’s overlapping and crossing down the left.

Little he could do to prevent Frenchman Digne swinging in his dead ball from the right, mind.

We don’t know if Norwich’s players had seen footage of Keane scoring twice in a Goodison Park practice match.

Regardless, they seemed unconcerned by the defender’s looming presence and let him run unchecked.

Keane won everything in the air at Carrow Road and this was no different.

He timed his leap to perfection and applied the finest of touches to steer the ball inside the far post.

This was Keane’s 100th Everton appearance and he was a deserving match winner.

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01:02 Wed 24 Jun 2020

KEANE EYES EUROPEAN FIGHT FOR EVERTON

Goalscorer gives his thoughts after heading winner in 1-0 Norwich victory.


Everton have quietly claimed four points from six inside three days and recorded back-to-back clean sheets.

Carlo Ancelotti has won three of his seven Premier League away games and taken 22 points from 13 match in charge.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin had two sights of goal in the opening 45 minutes but it would be harsh on the striker to intimate either were clear opportunities.

He was smothered by a scrum of defenders when Bernard sent in a cross and did well to ask Norwich goalkeeper Tim Krul to make a save of any form.

Everton switched between the measured building from the back advocated by manager Ancelotti and hitting balls early for Calvert-Lewin and fellow striker Richarlison.

The direct alternative made sense, utilising the strength and nous of a pair who link intelligently and stretching Norwich on a broiling evening.

Bernard, in for Anthony Gordon, was the heartbeat of Everton’s most fluent first-half move.

The Brazilian sneaked behind Norwich’s midfield to receive a pass from Digne, then feeding Richarlison and sending the return ball right for Alex Iwobi.

Iwobi’s hanging cross was smuggled clear by Norwich, in keeping with the pattern of defence prevailing over attack at this stage.

Meantime, Calvert-Lewin’s second half-chance. He controlled centre-back Keane’s speared forward pass and, as Norwich stood off, turned to fire a low shot which Krul saved at his feet.

Calvert-Lewin’s hold-up play has progressed at the same pace as his overall game.

The 23-year-old, with 13 Premier League goals this term, did wonderfully well to tame another forward ball under severe pressure.

His pass to Iwobi was good, the movement to make himself available for the return, excellent.

Calvert-Lewin followed all this with a left-footed cross destined for Richarlison until Ben Godfrey intervened with an exceptional piece of defending.

Jordan Pickford in Everton’s goal beat out a swerving drive from Lukas Rupp in first-half stoppage time.

Onel Hernandez, the home side’s Cuban attacker, picked up the scraps but ran into congestion as he made tracks into Everton’s box.

The block was eventually made by Seamus Coleman and the whole episode wasn’t dissimilar from a passage of play on 18 minutes.

Hernandez was the home player advancing and when he eventually took aim four Everton players were queueing to block his path.

Coleman’s foot deflected the shot onto Pickford’s left post with the England keeper scrambling to make up the ground.

Ondrej Duda liked his chances when Mason Holgate didn’t get enough of the ball making a challenge on the Slovak 20 yards from goal just past the half hour.

Duda grabbed the ball but dumped his set-piece into a sturdy defensive wall.

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01:27 Wed 24 Jun 2020

ANCELOTTI ON HOW EVERTON GOT JOB DONE AT NORWICH

Blues boss reflects on 1-0 success at Carrow Road.


Keane’s delicate finish lit a match under the second half, compelling Norwich to attack in greater numbers – and, ultimately, persuading Farke to introduce gun forwards Teemu Pukki and Emiliano Buendia.

Everton at this juncture were, in the view of ex-England cente-back Martin Keown, “bossing” the game.

Calvert-Lewin jinked to deceive Godfrey and create the space for a rising drive gloved over by Krul three minutes after Keane’s goal.

The Everton forward then tried something in the image of his goalscoring teammate, glancing a cross from Iwobi but sending it the wrong side of Krul’s right post.

Between times for Norwich, Alex Tettey’s blast was diverted behind by Gylfi Sigurdsson, a half-time replacement for Tom Davies.

Andre Gomes, perhaps slightly fortuitously, turned behind a menacing free-kick from Buendia immediately after the hosts’ double change.

Argentine Buendia lacked support after continuing his forward run to receive a return pass from Pukki and initially avoiding Pickford’s grab for the ball.

Indeed, despite an evident willingness to add bodies to attack Norwich could not engineer the room to open up their visitors.

Everton were content to suffocate Norwich and speed forward when possession was regained.

Krul saved low to his left from Calvert-Lewin after Bernard sprang Everton onto the counter.

Even six minutes of added time couldn't disturb Everton, the Blues expertly seeing out the closing minutes, keeping hold of the ball amid a flurry of substitutions.

A good night's work.

Keane Progress

Michael Keane marked his 100th Everton appearance in perfect fashion.

Clean sheets are any defender’s bread and butter and that is two in two games for Keane and Everton.

He was authoritative and decisive against Liverpool, an important part of Everton’s effort to shut down their city rivals.

Here, Keane opened the match by winning the ball high up the pitch, sounding his intention to defend on the front foot.

He was responsible for a pass fizzed 40 yards to Dominic Calvert-Lewin which led to the striker testing Tim Krul from distance.

Keane’s distribution is consistently reliable – he routinely records passing-accuracy numbers higher than 90 per cent – but it is the 27-year-old’s defending that has impressed Carlo Ancelotti.

The Italian is a confirmed fan of Keane and has selected him for four straight league games.

Keane looks confident and physically strong and is using his height and power to subdue centre-forwards.

Those qualities can be very useful in opposing penalty areas and Keane has related his wish to score more goals, going so far as to admit he was disappointed with a return of three from his previous 99 games.

It didn’t escape Evertonians’ attention that he headed in twice from corners in a practice match at Goodison Park 11 days ago.

Here he repeated the trick 10 minutes after half-time, striding in unattended to meet Lucas Digne’s corner from the right.

It wasn’t an easy finish but Keane made it look simple nonetheless, applying a fine touch to send the ball across the helpless Krul and into the far corner.

He was awarded man of the match and it's hard to imagine there would be any dissenting voices over that call.

Bernard Back 

Carlo Ancleotti conceded the 72-hour turnaround following Sunday’s Merseyside derby would present his team with a physical challenge.

The Italian nevertheless made only one change, recalling Bernard, while opposite number Daniel Farke swapped four players from the Norwich team which faced Southampton five days ago.

Indeed, former Everton defender Martin Keown, commentating for the BBC, declared himself “shocked and stunned” at German Farke’s decision to rejig his team.

Ancelotti essentially backed his players to employ their technical and tactical ability to outdo Norwich.

In Bernard, he introduced a footballer who fits that mould.

A body swerve from the Brazilian in the opening minutes left Max Aarons momentarily disorientated.

It was a nice vignette but Bernard wanted to effect the action.

His understanding with Lucas Digne hasn’t suffered for the pair being separated for three-and-a-half months.

The pair probed patiently to unpick Norwich’s right side and get Everton in behind Aarons and doubled up to deny the young right-back opportunities to advance.

Bernard’s first opportunity to cross resulted in a half-chance for Dominic Calvert-Lewin comfortably saved by Tim Krul.

Ancelotti asks his wide players to drift infield and Bernard was in a central position when he accepted a pass from Digne, before executing a one-two with Richarlison and feeding Alex Iwobi to cross from the right.

Emboldened, Bernard turned up in the middle again moments later to collect Richarlison’s knock down and sweep a pass for Digne.

Bernard showed tremendous anticipation to seize on Norwich hesitation soon after the break but was closed out as he travelled with the ball.

He prompted a counter-attack in the closing minutes which could conceivably have ended with Calvert-Lewin killing off Norwich - and his composure on the ball was valuable as Everton prevented the home team launching a late charge.

Back To Basics 

Everton’s concentration and discipline against Liverpool and Norwich have been fabulous.

Granted, those are not two of football’s most exhilarating traits but without them you have no hope.

Carlo Ancelotti and his coaching staff have evidently used a mini 'pre-season' to instil shape and structure into their side.

These are the foundations from which everything else can grow.

Everton’s central midfielders are tasked with organising and shielding their back four, waiting until they have a secure platform to explode creatively.

At the back, Michael Keane and Mason Holgate are barking out orders, doubling up as their midfielders’ eyes and a sound defensive pairing.

It is testament to Everton’s discipline and focus that Jordan Pickford has been asked to make two saves of any note in 180 minutes of football this week.

Ancelotti is clear on the need for players to excel at their primary job before anything else.

On the days when strikers aren’t in the goals, however – and there haven’t been many under Ancelotti – this commitment to keeping clean sheets grows even more valuable.

Everton claimed a point from the derby without scoring and it needed only Keane’s effort to bring all three points home from East Anglia.