EUROPA LEAGUE Benfica 5 Everton 0:DAVID MOYES saw his depleted Everton side spectacularly dismantled in five second-half minutes at the Estadio da Luz last night.
Any hopes of a recovery in this Europa League match – after Javier Saviola had opened the scoring – vanished as Oscar Cardozo scored twice and Luisao and Saviola again completed the rout and despite the absence of 11 players, Everton boss Moyes must have been left bewildered.
The home side made the breakthrough in the 14th minute with a superb half-volley from Saviola after a crossfield pass from Angel Di Maria split the defence.
Everton made a shocking start to the second half and suddenly found themselves 3-0 down. Cardozo scored both at the back post, the first with a close-range finish in the 46th minute, the second a header 60 seconds later.
Then Luisao increased their misery in the 52nd minute after Coleman made a desperate but vain attempt to keep the ball out.
Benfica made it 5-0 in the 84th minute when Saviola headed home a cross from Di Maria.
BENFICA:Julio Cesar, Ruben Amorim, Luisao, David Luiz, Cesar Peixoto, Ramires, Javi Garcia, Di Maria, Saviola (Weldon 85), Aimar (Carlos Martins 69), Cardozo (Fabio Coentrao 77). Subs not used: Quim, Maxi Pereira, Nuno Gomes, Sidnei. Goals: Saviola 14, Cardozo 47, 48, Luisao 52, Saviola 83.
EVERTON:Howard, Gosling, Hibbert, Distin, Coleman, Fellaini, Cahill, Rodwell, Bilyaletdinov (Saha 60), Jo, Yakubu (Baxter 71). Subs not used: Nash, Duffy, Agard, Wallace, Akpan. Booked: Gosling, Saha. Attendance: 44,534.
Referee:Nikolai Ivanov (Russia).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)