Good morning (yep, it’s still morning) and welcome to The42′s live minute-by-minute coverage of the 231st Merseyside derby.
Everton v Liverpool kicks off at 12.30pm, and we’ll have the team news for you very shortly.
TEAM NEWS: Everton make one change to the side which lost last weekend against Manchester City; Tom Davies gets a start in midfield.
Everton: Pickford, Coleman, Jagielka, Keane, Baines, Rooney, Schneiderlin, Davies, Walcott, Tosun, Bolasie.
TEAM NEWS: And, as expected, Jurgen Klopp makes a host of changes to the Liverpool side — five, to be precise — with one eye on Tuesday’s return trip to Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Clyne, Klavan, Wijnaldum, Solanke and Ings all start; Alexander-Arnold, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Firmino are on the bench with Robertson and Salah not involved in the matchday squad at all.
Liverpool: Karius, Clyne, Lovren, van Dijk, Klavan, Wijnaldum, Henderson, Milner, Ings, Solanke, Mane.
Interesting news for Irish Reds fans: Conor Masterson, who was an unused sub against City, is on the bench again today.
Late change for Liverpool…
Z-Cars rings out around Goodison, and the teams are out on the pitch. We’re just about ready to go.
As you may well have heard this week, Everton haven’t won a derby since late 2010 – but up against a changed Liverpool team who can’t help but be distracted by Tuesday’s challenge, it’s easy to feel that this might be their best chance in a long time.
A quick reminder of how things stand before kick-off. There may be 26 points separating the sides in third and ninth, but Liverpool won’t want to lose any ground in the battle for the top four.
Everton, for their part, are still very much in the hunt for the final Europa League place.
Three points will be about much more than the bragging rights today.
A moment’s applause in memory of the late Ray Wilkins is held before kick-off.
KICK OFF: We’re underway at Goodison. Michael Oliver is the man in black.
Seamus Coleman scampers down the right and has the first chance to test the Liverpool back four, but his cross is easily nodded clear by Van Dijk.
If you’re not watching on TV, and curious as to what the weather is like on Merseyside, I think the technical term is ‘piddling down’.
Rooney tries to warm Karius’s hands with a shot from the edge of the box but it hits his own man, a rather oblivious Theo Walcott.
Most of the football is being played in the Liverpool half but all it has produced so far is a handful of loose balls for the visitors’ back four to mop up.
Gini Wijnaldum has enough time to take a touch, set himself, and shoot – but he leans back and blazes a 25-yarder high and wide, to the audible delight of the home fans.
Mane gets a cross in despite the attentions of Seamus Coleman but there’s no real threat to worry about.
CHANCE! By far and away the best opportunity of the game so far, and Dominic Solanke flicks it wide with his head. Milner did well to turn the cross back into a dangerous area and Solanke did well to drift between defenders. It only needs a glance — but it’s too much of a glance and it skips off Solanke’s head and wide.
He needed to hit the target there.
Cenk Tosun immediately has a half-chance down the other end, but his dipping shot is the wrong side of the bar.
Two chances in quick succession for Liverpool but Everton and Jordan Pickford hold firm. Solanke misses Clyne’s cross at the first attempt but it ricochets back to him eight yards out, and Pickford reacts quickly to parry it away.
The Everton stopper then parries away another Liverpool chance at his near post.
Ooooh – Ragnar Klavan’s heart must have been in his mouth there. Keane nods the ball towards the Liverpool goal and with Tosun loitering in behind him, Klavan swings wildly and swipes the ball behind for a corner. It could have gone anywhere though.
Penalty shout from Everton as Tosun goes down in the box with Van Dijk in close attention. Nothing doing.
After a simmering opening 10 minutes, this game has come to the boil nicely.
(Can you tell it’s lunchtime?)
FINGERTIPS! Yannick Bolasie comes within a brush of Loris Karius’s glove of opening the scoring. Coleman’s cross is cleared but only to the edge of the box where Bolasie latches onto it, cuts back inside and curls his shot towards the far post. It looks as though it’s sneaking in, but Karius stretches across and gets just enough on it to turn it behind.
Milner whips a cross on to the penalty spot, but Jagielka has half a yard on Solanke and doesn’t need any more than that to win the battle on this particular occasion.
Good save Jordan Pickford! Henderson momentarily considers a shot from the edge of the box but then clips it back to Milner who has a couple of yards of space inside the box on the left. He tries a curling effort but just as Karius did at the opposite end a few moments ago, Pickford gets across and turns it away before it can sneak in at the far post.
Milner nicks the ball away from Rooney in midfield and as he scrambles to retrieve it, he brings down Solanke as he looked to launch a counter.
“It’s just a foul,” Michael Oliver reassures the Liverpool players who are presumably looking for a harsher punishment. “It’s just a foul.”
Liverpool free kick, around 35 yards out, pretty much dead centre. Van Dijk decides he fancies it and has a go — it’s on target but Pickford gets his body behind it without too much trouble.
As scoreless first halves go, this hasn’t been the worst, but as we tip closer to half time, my mind is wandering towards a cup of tea.
Again, Everton have the right men in the right place to nod a Milner free kick out of harm’s way.
Mane sees a bit of space open up in front of him, and rightly has a go, but can’t even hit the target. Disappointing.
HALF TIME: Everton 0-0 Liverpool
Wonder what he makes of it all so far?
Back in five.
SECOND HALF: We’re back. Goals, please.
Red jerseys line up on the edge of the Everton box but there are two solid banks of blue in front of them. Liverpool work it right and left but can’t manufacture an opening.
Clyne crosses from the right. It’s over Pickford’s head but Walcott is there to snuff out the danger.
And now a quarter-chance for Milner as Henderson tries to play a ball over the top to set him free. Milner slides — but only succeeds in sliding the ball out of play.
Everton sub: Not even 57 minutes played and Big Wayne is hauled off by Big Sam; he doesn’t look thrilled, to be honest. Idrissa Gueye on.
A rare moment of excitement in this second half as Seamus Coleman goes to ground with Danny Ings hot on his heels. It’s no foul but as Coleman gets up and starts remonstrating with Bolasie for not showing for the pass, he rounds and turns on Ings and it all gets a little bit spiky for a moment.
I’m no lip-reader but looking at the replay, it looks like Ings called Coleman a “diving bastard”. That’ll do it alright.
Everton sub: Yannick Bolasie is whipped off, much to the delight of the home fans. Dominic Calvert-Lewin on in his place.
Liverpool sub: The subs are about the only thing worth mentioning at the moment, to be honest. Milner off; Oxlade-Chamberlain on.
What’s happening? Well, nothing, to be honest. Everton look happy with a scoreless draw and Liverpool look like they’ve already moved on to Tuesday…
Solanke has two bites at the cherry on the edge of the Everton box but twice, Seamus Coleman blocks him. That goal still as elusive as ever.
Liverpool sub: Mane off; Firmino on.
A rare Everton venture into Liverpool territory almost leads to an unlikely chance. Calvert-Lewin’s scuffed shot catches a stray leg but instead of rebounding into the path of either Tosun or Coleman, it bounces behind them and rolls out of harm’s way.
BIG CHANCE! Oh, that’s arguably Everton’s best chance of the game. Baines got in behind and zipped a low ball across the face of the Liverpool goal, just out of reach of Karius. Tosun slipped into the space between Van Dijk and Klavan and stretched for it — any touch would do — but he’s a few inches short of making contact.
Everton sub: Beni Baningime on in place of Tom Davies for the last 10ish minutes.
SLIP! It’s all Everton now! Tosun outmuscles Lovren in pursuit of a loose ball down the left and puts it across the face of goal. If Walcott keeps his feet, he’ll surely be able to take a touch and test Karius, but as he tries to turn, he slips and the moment is gone.
Everton are really going for it now, and look the only team likely to win it in the last five – although they will need to beware of Liverpool on the counter. Baines hangs up another testing cross and Karius needs to be strong to claim and hold.
Walcott skips away from Firmino on the right, but crosses to no-one in particular, and it squirts free on the far side. Everton still on the front foot though.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE WINNER! Oh Seamus Coleman, you won’t get a better chance than this! Everton miss a glorious opportunity to snatch all three points in the dying minutes here.
It’s a great cross by Walcott to that back post, brilliant physicality by Tosun to hold off Van Dijk and steer the ball back across goal with his head, and almost the perfect positioning by Coleman who only needs to breathe on the ball to put it over the line. He stretches, and it’s just out of reach.
What a chance.
ANOTHER BRILLIANT CHANCE! Oh Everton, how many chances do you want?! Coleman’s at the heart of it all again and it’s his cross that clips a Liverpool leg and screws its way to Calvert-Lewin at the back post.
He has to hit the target – absolutely has to – but fluffs his lines and somehow manages to fire high and wide. Any sort of decent connection there and Karius would have been in all sorts of trouble.
Three additional minutes to be played here.
After 83 or 84 minutes of largely pedestrian fare, it’s been a frantic finish. Can Everton snatch the winner they feel that they’ll deserve?
One last chance for Everton to launch a free into the Liverpool box…
FULL TIME: Everton 0-0 Liverpool
So it finishes honours even at Goodison. It wasn’t always pretty or entertaining but after those final few minutes, Liverpool will be happy enough to be heading back across Stanley Park with the point.
That’s all for now but stay with us over the course of the afternoon for all the reaction from Goodison, as well as full coverage of the rest of the day’s Premier League action — culminating in the Manchester derby at 5.30pm.
Thanks for reading and for commenting.
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