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Manchester United 4 - 4 Everton

Fellaini, Jelavic and Pienaar immense

Everton fought back from 3-1 and 4-2 down to draw an incredible contest at Old Trafford. Wayne Rooney headed in Nani's cross to cancel out Nikica Jelavic's opener. Welbeck and Nani gave United a two-goal cushion before Marouane Fellaini pulled one back with a volley. Rooney appeared to have sealed victory when he slotted home, only for Everton to score twice in three minutes through Jelavic and Steven Pienaar to secure a brilliant comeback score draw.

Match Summary

Everton kicked off and pushed United form the start. Some really neat football down the left saw some great passing among Fellaini and Pienaar, Osman chasing the final bobble ball and heading just wide. Fellaini was back to cut out United's first attack but hoofed clearances were not helping the cause.

Osman then played to a superb run from Jelavic, pulling well wide of his marker but his shot from a golden position was weak and saved too easily by De Gea. Pienaar then picked out a run by Osman who shot was low but wide of the far post rather than going for the nearpost shot.

After totally dominating the first 10 mins, Everton allowed the The Reds to poke a few shots in on Howard, Heitinga losing the ball a little too easily.

Everton were seeing glimpses of light through the middle, with Fellaini and Pienaar exploiting space, Osman and Jelavic running into good positions. Everton put more pressure on the home side with some dangerous crosses, fierce shot from Osman blocked away.

United were pressing on the half-hour the ball getting to see a little more of Haward's gloves but Gibson got up filed and drilled one wide. But some more great work in the middle by Pienaar allowedd Gibson to feed Hibbert for a very deep cross to the far post, where Jelavic headed it perfectly back over De Gea and in off the far post! Another excellent strike.

Howard was very lucky to stop a tripple deflection driven at him through the crowd by Scholes as United looked to respond.

And 5 mins before the break, Nani beat Hibbert with a superb cross that Neville could not jump high enough for and Rooney in behind him had a simple task to complete with an easy header to level things. Advantage lost again by the Blues.

Fellaini again played in Osman for a great little run forward but the final powder-puff shot was poor as Pienaar's run made excellent space for him. Jelavic tried something acrobatic on a difficult cross from Pienaar. Distin was then given a ridiculous yellow card when Valencia lost his balance and fell over Really, the Blues should have made more of their stunning first-half dominance... but what sort of Blue side would appear after the break this week, having surrendered another lead?

Everton came out with good enough intent, Gibson, Fellaini and Pienaar all playing good forward balls, searching out Jelavic, while aat the back, some tenacious defending was required, Neville coming in strongly on Ferdinand, we decided to extract some afters and should have been booked for his reaction.

But increasing United pressure finally paid off, thanks in part to a criminal failure by the Everton defence to clear the ball properly on two occasions, allowing a brilliant piece of skill from Welbeck after Heitinga turned the wrong way, allowing the young striker to curl a brilliant shot past Howard. Moyes will complain that Pienaar was out of the play, down after overstretching, but he had not been fouled.

From a one-nil lead to two-one down... sounds familiar? And United then waltzed far too easily through a static Everton defence, Nani with plenty of time to clip the ball past Howard and make it 3 - 1. More United pressure could have seen more goals as Moyes reacted to the reverse by swapping Osman for McFadden, the Blues in danger of imploding after such a wonderful 40 mins in the first half, where they failed to take the chances created and now looked to have paid the price.

But a neat move involving McFadden and another good cross form Hibbert allowed Fellaini to smack him a difficult hip-high volley to make the score 3 - 2. More good work saw excellent forward play and Pienaar set up for a good strike that was saved by De Gea.

But it didn't take before another far too easy move sliced open the Everton defence, Rooney stroking home from close range and Everton rocked back at 4 - 2 with 20 mins left to play.

Despite the scoreline, Everton did at least try to keep up the forward momentum, although quite what McFadden was doing with one forward pass was anyone's guess. Pienaar was still up for it but just failed to find Fellaini after a great turn in the Utd area.

More good work set up Jelavic but his shot into the side netting was lacking conviction as Everton kept attacking despite the depressing scoreline, McFadden and Fellaini combining nicely but not getting the end result. While at the other end, incredibly Man Utd failed to make it five with another with Nani and Evra combining to hit the post instead.

That seemed to spur the Blues to a slightly higher level as they pressed United back yet again, and Fellaini manged to head the ball into Jelavic's path, the Croatian powering in Everton's third goal as Cahill replaced Distin.

Really confident possession straight down the middle and the inside left channel then built Everton's best goal of the game, a great ball in to Fellaini who turned brilliantly and fed the perfect ball to Pienaar, who smacked it home in fine style!!! 4 - 4!!!

Five mins left, plus five mins of added time, and United desperate to swat aside the annoying Blues who had outplayed them substantially, SAF bringing on Hernandez for the big push, and it was finally Everton who were on the back foot, defending with increasing nervousness.

One clear-cut chance came to Ferdinandbut his shot was saved brilliantly by Howard, tipping over in the 94th minute, and that was it: 4 - 4, and a pretty astounding result. Some excellent attacking football form Everton,always playing positively... why oh why did they not play like this last weekend???

Everton: Howard; Hibbert, Jagielka, Distin (83' Cahill), Neville; Osman (63 McFadden), Heitinga, Gibson, Pienaar; Fellaini; Jelavic.
Subs not used: Mucha, Stracqualursi, Gueye, Barkley, Anichebe.

Quotes or other material sourced from ToffeeWeb Match Report Page

• Match Report

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