Everton’s miserable start to the season suffered a new low on Thursday when they slipped to a humiliating 5-1 defeat at the hands of Dynamo Bucharest in their UEFA Cup first round, first leg tie.
The defeat came in the wake of their elimination in the Champions League qualifying round by Villarreal and followed a depressing start to the Premiership where they are third from bottom.
The result will also pile on the pressure for manager David Moyes whose team had been looking forward to the new campaign with optimism in the summer after their surprising fourth place finish in the Premiership last season.
Moyes’s men now need a miracle to rescue the tie in the second leg in Liverpool in two weeks’ time if they are to qualify for the group stages of the competition.
The Romamians went into the lead in the 27th minute when Claudiu Niculescu rose above the Everton defence to head in a cross from Florentin Petre despite the Merseysiders’ suspicions that the goal was offisde.
But David Moyes’s men were level just two minutes later when defender Joseph Yobo headed his first goal in 16 months from a Simon Davies free-kick with Leon Osman following the ball over the line for good measure as goalkeeper Uladzimir Gaev was well-beaten.
Just after Everton had levelled, Australian international Cahill was booked for a late lunge on Ianis Zicu.
The evening took another turn for the worse for Everton who had started the game with Marcus Bent as a lone striker and with Duncan Ferguson, Mikel Arteta and Kevin Kilbane all on the bench. Seven minutes into the second half, the Romanian side restored their lead when Ianis Zicu coolly finished to beat Nigel Martyn after a well-worked move down the right wing with Niculescu delivering the superb cross.
The home side poured forward as Everton tried to protect their away goal.
Florin Bratu came close to adding a third after slipping throug the defence to be denied by a smart save from Martyn.
Dynamo deservedly added to their score in the 70th minute as Everton began to wilt as Petre smashed a superb effort into the corner to give the Romanians a crucial 3-1 lead.
Four minutes later Florin Bratu then made it 4-1 after his low shot beat Martyn to leave Everton staring at elimination and then piled on the agony for the Merseysiders by adding his second of the night in the last minute. – Sapa-AFP