Tottenham’s Erik Lamela in action with Everton’s Gareth Barry.
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Sports Mole looks ahead to the first leg of the League Cup semi-final between Everton and Manchester City at Goodison Park.
The Toffees beat City 2-1 at Goodison Park in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final tie thanks to goals from Ramiro Funes Mori and Romelu Lukaku.
“…The reason we have so many developing young players is there are leaders in the mould of Gareth Barry…”
“I have never seen a player with such incredible professionalism”. For me he is one of the best English players ever. He could reach 600 Premier League appearances this season.
Barry, who has played 576 Premier League games and been capped 53 times by England, joined Everton from City in 2014 following a successful season-long loan.
That was also the year Everton lost in the final of the League Cup, going down 1-0 to Liverpool in a replay.
“It is more than happiness”, he said. The performances have been very inconsistent and probably that’s where the frustration comes. “The winning mentality to get that [second] goal was really impressive”.
“We had to cope with losing Tom Cleverley and Lukaku got a knock and we finished with 10 men”.
Nevertheless, Martinez used his pre-match press conference to urge supporters to stay behind the team when he said: “We know that we showed great signs this season but we need to be patient”.
City boss Manuel Pellegrini has injury worries of his own after Eliaquim Mangala was substituted at half-time to join fellow centre-back Vincent Kompany on the sidelines.
“I don’t know if he will be available for the weekend but I don’t think it is too serious”.
“They were two very important plays”.
“The first-half, they scored a goal that is quite clearly offside, and in the second-half we should have had a penalty”, he fumed. Lukaku is one yard in front of Willy Caballero and he makes the movement and the clear penalty on Jesus Navas.
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Skipper Phil Jagielka and midfielder Steven Pienaar are both in contention for a place in the squad, but James McCarthy is likely to be out of action until the end of the month with a hip injury.
