Alcaraz seizes rare moment to put Everton through against Wolves

As this Carabao Cup Third Round tie neared its final 10 minutes, it was starting to feel as though, for all their dominance and attacking endeavour, Everton weren’t going to make the all-important breakthrough against Wolves.

A dreaded penalty shootout, so often the Blues’ undoing in this competition, was looming when Charly Alcaraz, introduced just three minutes earlier in place of Hayden Hackney, turned the last man smartly and swept home the game’s only goal.

Despite a spirited and occasionally spiky performance from the recently-relegated Midlanders, it was all Everton needed to book passage to the next round and a date with Newcastle United in a month’s time.

The display from David Moyes’s men was patchy — occasionally sloppy and lacking in the killer ball in the final third — but also encouraging in many respects, not least the 77 minutes in the legs of Jack Grealish who is still visibly working his way back to sharpness and Tyler Dibling’s most complete outing in a royal blue shirt to date.

So often underwhelming and apparently playing within himself on his previous appearances, the young winger was excellent — direct and electric at times; measured, precise and tidy in others. On another night he'd have walked away with two assists but Joao Virginia chose to mark his return to Merseyside by channeling his inner Jordan Pickford with a superb performance in goal and the Portuguese denied Brennan Johnson his second League Cup goal of the season off Dibling’s sublime through-ball.

Thankfully, when Dibling found Alcaraz in the area later in the second half, the Argentine made no mistake and both will have given the manager plenty to think about in terms of team selection moving forward.

For both players, it was in marked contrast to their experience against the same opposition and at the same stage of this competition this time last year. That evening at Molineux, Alcaraz was hooked at half-time and Dibling didn’t make it to the hour mark before he, too, was withdrawn as Everton lost 2–0 to a team that had made a horrendous start to their their Premier League campaign.

Between them, the two fringe players had, before tonight, been afforded less than 90 minutes’ of playing time in all competitions this season, with Dibling handed a start against Preston and Alcaraz having to be content to come off the bench in Everton’s first three games.

And that was the case this time as well against Wolves, with Dibling named in the starting XI alongside Grealish, making his first start some rejoining on loan from Manchester City, Hackney, Michael Keane and Jake O’Brien as the five changes from the side that had started against Spurs last Saturday.

The Toffees took a while to get going, however, as Wolves had come determined to give them a competitive game and to try to take a Premier League scalp. As such, the visitors had the better of the opening exchanges and Raul Jimenez drove an early direct free-kick over Pickford’s crossbar while Sean Neave tried to win a penalty when he went down in the box between O’Brien and Keane.

It wasn’t until almost half an hour had passed that the home team first threatened Virginia’s goal when O’Brien flashed a header off a corner into the side-netting. That sparked Everton into life, though, and they were unfortunate not to go into the half-time interval with their noses in front.

Dibling beat two men and dribbled impressively along the byline before his centre was cut out by Toti Gomes. Almost immediately afterwards, referee Tom Bramall played advantage when Dibling was scythed down outside the box and Hackney slipped a through-ball between two defenders for Thierno Barry but Virginia was quickly off his line to smother the ball at the striker’s feet.

The keeper reacted smartly again a few minutes later when Hackney tried to prod a loose ball home after an attempted clearance cannoned off Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall back in front of goal before Grealish stung Virginia’s palms with a shot from 20 yards out.

The best chance of the half came at the end a lovely move and fell to Barry when James Garner chipped a cross invitingly to the back post but Virginia’s stunning one-handed reaction save stopped the Frenchman’s goal-bound header from rippling the net.

The Wolves stopper almost blotted his copybook early in the second period when he allowed Barry to close him down and his kick ricocheted off the Frenchman and into the stands. At the other end, meanwhile, Tawanda Chirewa drilled the ball across the face of goal with no takers for a tap-in and Adam Armstrong had Wolves’ best chance of the match when Neave out-muscled Vitalii Mykolenko near the centre-circle and played the substitute in. Thankfully, Pickford made a good save with his out-stretched leg to divert the shot behind.

After Dewsbury-Hall had fizzed a deflected shot wide, Virginia matched his opposite number 10 minutes later, denying Johnson with his foot when the sub latched onto Dibling’s visionary forward ball. Just as important where Moyes is concerned, Dibling immediately raced back to put in a last ditch tackle as Wolves broke away on the counter-attack. 

Grealish’s last meaningful act was to see another shot charged down by a defender and the winner finally came shortly after Alcaraz and Tyrique George had been thrown on with 13 minutes to go. Dibling, who had shown admirable strength and poise to bustle through before lashing a strike off target, was involved as Ainsley Maitland-Niles attacked down the right flank, slipped it inside to the No 20 and when Dibling flicked it on to Alcaraz, the other substitute faked to shoot with his right foot and cut back in on his left before curling it around Virginia and in.

Wolves initially rallied, with Pickford forced to shovel Tommy Doyle’s chest-and-volley awkwardly away to safety with seven minutes of the 90 to go but Everton otherwise saw the game out comfortably, bar a stoppage-time kicking error from Pickford that forced O’Brien into a needless foul that went unpunished.

So, Everton’s unbeaten start to the new season continues and while they don’t appear to yet be firing on all cylinders and a few players are still trying to play their way back to fitness, the important thing is that they progressed to the next round where Newcastle await.