Everton brush Young Boys aside
Thursday, February 26, 2015
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Everton FC 3-1 BSC Young Boys (agg: 7-2)
Romelu Lukaku again proved too strong for the Swiss visitors as he scored twice to leave Everton as England's sole team in the last 16.
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• Everton's 3-1 win takes them into the round of 16 for the first time in seven years
• Young Boys, trailing 4-1 after first leg, take an early lead through Sekou Sanogo Junior
• Romelu Lukaku reaches 100 career goals at younger age than Wayne Rooney
• Everton are the only remaining English side in the competition
• Follow Friday's round of 16 draw on UEFA.com, with live streaming from 13.00CET
Everton FC reached the UEFA Europa League round of 16 for the first time since 2007/08 by completing a comprehensive 7-2 aggregate victory against BSC Young Boys at Goodison Park.
As in the first leg, Young Boys got the first goal of the night through Sekou Sanogo Junior, but their hopes of an unlikely comeback were ended by Romelu Lukaku, scorer of a hat-trick in Berne. He struck twice midway through the first half – the first a penalty – before Kevin Mirallas added a third goal before the break.
Young Boys have never won in England but Uli Forte's visitors made a bright start with Junior scrambling the ball in after Tim Howard had got a hand to Milan Vilotić's close-range header. Had Scott Sutter's header gone in rather than smack the crossbar, a different story might have unfolded. Instead, Everton equalised when Steven Naismith was upended by Marco Wölfli and Lukaku struck with a precise spot kick.
News of Liverpool FC's penalty shoot-out loss to Beşiktaş JK drew a noisy response from the Goodison crowd and they had further goals to celebrate. Lukaku volleyed in his sixth effort of this season's competition from Luke Garbutt's cross, before Mirallas raced on to Darron Gibson's defence-splitting ball to make it three.
Although Lukaku limped off just after the break, Everton kept attacking, with Wölfli denying Mirallas via his feet and substitute Arouna Koné striking the post.