Everton 4-1 West Ham United
Carabao Cup Round Four
West Ham United’s involvement in the Carabao Cup came to an end on Wednesday night as Everton scored three times in the second half to send the visitors to a 4-1 defeat.
The Hammers looked well placed to put the Toffees under pressure when Robert Snodgrass cancelled out Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s opener at the start of the second half.
But Richarlison soon retook the lead for his side, with the help of a huge deflection off Declan Rice, before Calvert-Lewin wrote his headlines by completing a hat-trick with two goals inside the final 12 minutes.
West Ham had the first shot on goal of the evening, Felipe Anderson testing Jordan Pickford with a low drive from outside the area after seven minutes. The Brazilian aimed for the bottom left corner, but Pickford was equal to his effort, holding on as he dived to make the stop.
Everton created their first chance four minutes later and made it count as Calvert-Lewin continued his hot start to the campaign with the opening goal.
The Hammers appealed for offside as he ran in behind to control Michael Keane’s lofted ball forward, but the Everton forward had timed his run to perfection and he dinked past an exposed Darren Randolph.
Nine minutes later Richarlison very nearly made it 2-0, bursting into the box and looking to catch Randolph out with a swiftly-taken left-footed prod. The Irishman got just enough on the save to divert the ball over the top.
Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and James Rodriguez were linking up with menace for the home side, and the former tried his luck again just past the half-hour, cutting onto his right foot outside the box and curling over the top.
West Ham stood up to the Toffees’ attacking threat though, and weren’t too far away from heading into the break level when Manuel Lanzini got on the end of an Aaron Cresswell cross and tried to deftly nod towards the far post, but the ball dropped wide with Pickford scrambling.
If Everton made a swift start to the first period, West Ham were even quicker out of the blocks after half-time, levelling a mere 26 seconds after the restart.
It was quite some strike from Snodgrass too, as he bent a left-footed shot across Pickford and into the far corner of the net after Felipe Anderson laid the ball off to the Scotsman just outside the box.
However, Everton responded strongly to the leveller, and twice went close through Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson, before the former re-established the lead for his side with 56 minutes on the clock.
Randolph was left helpless as the Everton man let fly from outside the box, with the ball flicking off Declan Rice’s back to leave the goalkeeper wrongfooted.
Sebastien Haller’s volley into the turf needed a reaction save from Pickford as the Hammers looked to respond again, but two more goals for Calvert-Lewin inside the final twelve minutes killed the contest off.
First, he reacted quickest to knock into the net after Alex Iwobi’s angled shot came back off the post, then Sigurdsson played him through inside the box to finish coolly and secure the matchball.
Everton: Pickford, Kenny (Coleman 42), Keane, Digne, Nkounkou, Allan (Doucoure 70), Delph, Sigurdsson, James, Richarlison (Iwobi 61), Calvert-Lewin
Subs: Lossl (GK), Coleman, Mina, Davies, Bernard
Goals: Calvert-Lewin 11, 78, 84, Richarlison 56
West Ham United: Randolph, Johnson, Rice, Balbuena, Cresswell, Noble, Snodgrass, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Felipe Anderson, Haller
Subs: Trott (GK), Ashby, Masuaku, Ogbonna, Soucek, Fornals, Bowen
Goal: Snodgrass 46
Referee: Darren England