By Chris Wright
That’s it. Kaput. There is to be zippo English presence in the quarter-finals of this season’s European competitions after Everton, our final remaining representatives, were consummately expunged from the Europa League by Dynamo Kiev earlier this evening.
Going into the game nursing a healthy 2-1 lead from the first leg at Goodison, the Toffees were sent sprawling out after conceding five goals amid something of a defensive horror show out in Ukraine.
That said, a couple of Dynamo’s goals were proper crackers, with Andriy Yarmolenko’s 21st-minute opener setting the tone in style…
Romelu Lukaku then equalised eight minutes later with his 100th senior goal (at the age of 21), tucking away a tidy top-corner finish of his own…
Dynamo then blitzed Everton with a two-goal salvo in as many minutes with Lukasz Teodorczyk and Miguel Veloso scoring in the 35th and 37th minutes respectively before Oleg Gusev stabbed in another shortly after half-time to make it 4-1.
Then, commeth the 76th minute, commeth the man as Dynamo left-back Vitorino Antunes circumnavigated Tim Howard for a fifth time with an absolute rasper from 30 yards…
Ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong!
This poor chap’s face summed it up nicely…
Fancy going all that way, and for what? An 82nd minute Phil Jagielka consolation header.
5-2 it finished.
Yeesh.