Everton shrug off crowd trouble in Europa League win
PARIS: Everton took a 2-0 lead in a Europa League qualifying play-off first leg clash on Thursday against Hajduk Split in Liverpool in a game stopped temporarily due to crowd trouble.
Hajduk fans surged towards the Goodison Park pitch and threw objects with play stopped shortly after Michael Keane’s 30th-minute header had put the hosts in front.
After police brought the situation under control players returned to the pitch and Everton doubled their lead in the 45th minute thanks to Idrissa Gueye’s strike off a Wayne Rooney cross.
“I was really happy with the first half and unhappy about the second. We lost a big opportunity to score more goals,” said Everton coach Ronald Koeman.
Keane said he was delighted to score his first goal for Everton since his move from Burnley in the summer.
“I’m delighted — first and foremost, to get a clean sheet,” the England defender told the club’s website.
“That’s what we aim for, especially in European games at home. It’s massive and makes it a lot easier when they don’t score.
“It was the same case as in the last tie, when we took a 1-0 win over there. We managed to go one better today. I thought we played well in the first half, we weren’t really ourselves in the second half but at least we got the clean sheet.”
In Milan, defender Leonardo Bonucci captained AC Milan to a 6-0 win on his competitive debut for the Italian side against modest Macedonians Shkendija two months after playing for Juventus in the Champions League final.
The Chinese-owned club were too strong for the Macedonians with a double from new signing Andre Silva in the first half and Riccardo Montolivo after 25 and 85 minutes.