A stoppage-time winner from Jacob Beaumont-Clark earned Everton Under-19s a 1-0 win over Sudeva Delhi in the Premier League Next Generation Cup 2023 on Saturday.
The victory - the young Blues' first of the tournament - sees them climb to third in their group following a defeat to Wolves in their opening game of the tournament.
Both teams had goals ruled out for offside in blistering 37 degree heat at the Reliance Corporate Park Stadium in Navi Mumbai, before Everton snatched all three points in dramatic fashion at the death.
The first chance of the contest came seven minutes in, as a long ball from Sudeva was misjudged by Everton's goalkeeper but Haodamlian Vaiphei's effort was blocked by his own player and the Blues survived.
Coby Ebere responded at the other end by cleverly beating his marker before dragging a shot wide of the target.
Sudeva had the ball in the net on 11 minutes when Ramesh Chhetri steered home a rebound after Vaiphei's saw his initial shot blocked, but the offside flag denied the Indian outfit from taking the lead.
An entertaining and end-to-end affair continued when Isaac Heath opened up Sudeva's defence with an excellent pass to release Halid Djankpata, but the Blues captain's shot was well saved by goalkeeper Sachin Jha.
Jha was on hand again moments later to deny Callum Bates' left-footed shot and keep the deadlock intact.
Perhaps the best opportunity of the opening period fell to Ebere, who saw his shot well saved after neat work from Luke Butterfield and Djankpata in the build up.
But Sudeva ended the first half in the ascendancy and squandered chances through Seilenthang Lotjem and Phoenix Oinam.
Everton regained some control after the interval and Ebere, a constant threat in the Blues' attack, was denied again by an excellent sliding challenge by Ashray Bhardwaj as the Blues forward was about to pull the trigger inside the penalty area.
Heath thought he had put Everton ahead when he scrambled home a corner but, again, the offside flag was raised and it remained 0-0.
With time running out and both sets of players feeling the searing heat, Everton struck the decisive blow.
Djankpata displayed impressive hold-up play to bide his time and pick out Beaumont-Clark, who made no mistake in stroking the ball into the back of the net to secure all three points.
