Second-half goals from Miguel Veloso, Pedro Mendes and Matias Fernandez gave Sporting Lisbon a 3-0 win over Everton that sent the Toffees out of the Europa League 4-2 on aggregate at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
David Moyes's men were leading 2-1 from the first leg of their last-32 tie but, on the return to Portugal, were outplayed by Sporting Lisbon.
The Toffees looked jaded throughout the night and they saw first leg lead go up in smoke as Sporting turned on the style, with Miguel Veloso opening the scoring with a powerful strike past Tim Howard at his near post.
David Moyes threw on Yakubu Aiyegbeni in an attempt to get back into the tie, but the hosts doubled their lead after 76 minutes when Pedro Mendes saw his deflected drive from outside the area fly into the net.
As the Toffees pressed for a goal that would take the game to extra time, Lisbon cantered down the pitch unopposed to add a third, this time substitute Matias Fernandez rounding Howard to put a gloss on the scoreline and end Everton's trophy hopes for another season.
Everton were poor in the first half but still kept it scoreless, despite the decision to put Leon Osman on Joao Moutinho backfiring as the hosts overran their guests in midfield.
The visitors did look for the counter attack but with Louis Saha isolated with the visiting midfield hemmed back for large parts of the half, Sporting keeper Rui Patricio barely broke sweat.
Sporting play Atletico Madrid in the last 16 after they sealed a 2-1 win over Galatasary in Istanbul.
David Moyes must love Lisbon... Sporting was completely free falling until today, but Everton decided to come to Lisbon to try the 0-0
ReplyDeleteNaturally they lost