Everton 1-1 Aston Villa
by Alyce Collett (18/01/25)
Above: Veatriki Sarri being congratulated after scoring the equaliser in yesterday’s game against Aston Villa. Photo: Everton website
Everton managed to rescue a draw from the jaws of defeat, drawing 1-1 with Aston Villa at Walton Hall Park. Aston Villa dominated much of the game and it was rewarded with a first-half goal from Rachel Daly but Everton improved in the second half and found a 90th-minute goal from Veatriki Sarri.
Early in proceedings, Aston Villa dominated possession and time in the attacking half. The Villains also looked a lot more settled moving the ball forward towards the Everton goal than Everton did and had several positive chances on goal, but thanks to some excellent goalkeeping from Courtney Brosnan, those shots came to no avail.
Everton found themselves getting outnumbered on numerous occasions when moving into attack, and the midfield did not push up alongside the strikers quickly enough, leaving Toni Payne and to a lesser extent, Katja Snoeijs to take on four defenders and Villa goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo by themselves.
Another issue for the Toffees was their inability to contain the influence of Adriana Leon, with the Canadian able to switch from the right side to the left and back again and create a lot of headaches for Everton without any close marking.
Everton did have several chances on goal in the first half to varying degrees of accuracy, but ultimately they were not particularly difficult shots, and D’Angelo was able to defend them all with ease.
Just as things were starting to even out possession-wise, Daly was able to give Aston Villa the lead on the half-hour mark, managing to sneak a header past Brosnan and into the bottom corner.
As the half progressed, the same issues continued to plague Everton in attack. The Toffees were playing a low block in defence, meaning when they did go into attack they did not have the numbers to navigate past the Aston Villa defence successfully, and a lot of the time they were trying to move the ball with pace but were not doing so calmly and in a composed manner, and Villa were pouncing on the chaos.
The best player for the home side in the opening half was Brosnan. Her ability to keep out several tricky shots from Aston Villa meant that the score was only 1-0 at halftime.
Aston Villa continued to be on the attack early, seeming to continue where they had left off before halftime.
It did not take long for Everton to make their first set of changes, with Emma Watson, Kelly Gago and Melissa Lawley replacing Snoeijs, Toni Payne and Justine Vanhevermaet respectively after only nine minutes of the second-half action. This move seemed to have some positive effects straight away, with Gago lifting the energy of the attack on her debut.
These changes rejigged the shape of Everton’s formations, and the positive effects were clear to see straight away.
Everton were creating more dangerous chances in attack, and in defence the Toffees were also defending better, not letting the Villa midfielders have free reign that they had in the first half.
Someone who was starting to make an influence for Everton as the match progressed was Hayley Ladd, who had been a starter on her debut but as the game progressed she was being an important pivot point in the centre of the park for her side.
As the second half progressed, both sides continued to rack up the chances, but as full-time grew closer it was unclear if the scoreline was going to change.
However, this story was ultimately not quite done.
With 70 seconds left in regular time, Sarri – who had only come on just over 15 minutes prior – let a rocket of a shot go from the top of the box, which sailed past D’Angelo and into the back of the net for the equaliser.
Both sides continued to push for the winner in additional time, but it ultimately never came.
Teams: EVERTON (4-4-2): Brosnan, Fernandez, Hayashi, Wheeler, Vanhaevermaet, T.Payne, Ladd, Hope, H.Payne, Finnigan, Snoeijs Substitutes: Ramsey, Bissell, Lawley, Ribadeira, Watson, Sarri, Gago, Thomas, Olesen.
Scorer: Sarri 89’
ASTON VILLA (4-2-3-1): D’Angelo, Maritz, Patten, Turner, Nobbs, Baijings, Leon, Daly, Salmon, Nunes. Substitutes: Poor, Mayling, Pacheco, Parker, Taylor, Hanson, Robinson, Grant.
Scorer: Daly 31’
Referee: Stacey Fullicks
Attendance: TBD
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