everton beaten by krasnodar but unbowed published: thursday 11 december 2014, 23.00cet everton fc 0-1 fc krasnodar ricardo laborde's first-half goal felled an inexperienced home team, but everton still won group h with krasnodar coming in third.
• ricardo laborde fires krasnodar in front on half-hour • oleg kononov's men leapfrog losc, beaten by wolfsburg, to come third in group h • everton, already confirmed group winners, blood youngsters including two 17-year-olds • blues debuts for ryan ledson, kieran dowell, gethin jones and chris long • round of 32 draw takes place in nyon at 13.00cet on 15 december
ricardo laborde's 30th-minute goal gave fc krasnodar their maiden victory in a uefa group stage, in what was also a game of firsts for an everton fc side already assured of top spot in uefa europa league group h.
officially a mere 14 krasnodar fans made the journey to liverpool; the russian club's joint-top scorer ari also failed to travel, but their captain andreas granqvist gave a show of commitment with a robust challenge on christian atsu. antolin alcaraz headed just wide, before atsu's early withdrawal made kieran dowell the blues' second 17-year-old debutant of the evening alongside fellow midfielder ryan ledson.
goalkeepers andrei sinitsin and joel robles had their hands warmed on a cold night by arouna koné and wanderson respectively. everton skipper steven pienaar forced a save as well, yet the breakthrough came from the visitors. laborde sprang the offside trap and, despite robles fronting up to him, the winger outwitted the keeper with a cute shot inside the near post.
robles redeemed himself somewhat by denying the clean-through laborde at the start of the second half. the teams had drawn 1-1 on matchday two, and as on that occasion roberto martínez's men needed to chase an equaliser. one notable chance fell to youngster dowell before koné headed centimetres over. krasnodar's marat ızmailov also spurned a gilt-edged opportunity – but the one goal was enough for a bit of history.
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