Everton fail to rise to the moment leaving Euro dreams hanging by a thread

In a Premier League season, as in life, you only get so many bites at the cherry. This was Everton’s time to seize the day; to stand up, be counted and grab an opportunity to vault themselves back into the reckoning for a place in the top seven and an outside chance at sixth place which could yet carry the prize of Champions League football.

An away game at arguably their favourite ground in the top flight against an opposition who had been in Europa Conference League action on Thursday night and had been given Friday off by manager, Oliver Glasner, should have been an occasion for steely determination and an unshakeable desire to take all three points.

Unfortunately, the fateful decision to sit back on two well-earned leads and invite late pressure, depressingly familiar frailties at the back, and a painful lack of killer instinct at the other end condemned the Blues to another frustrating draw that, when combined with the points thrown away against Manchester City on Monday night, could have cost Everton a place in Europe next season.

Their posture to begin both halves couldn’t have been questioned. It took them a shade over five minutes to get their noses in front in the first period; Beto’s 10th goal of the season in all competitions that restored the Toffees’ advantage came two minutes into the second.

Both times, though, Palace were allowed back in, with Everton’s sloppiness in possession, wide-open midfield, and rickety central-defensive pairing proving costly while two of their big-name — and, supposedly, big-game — players spurned chances to put matters beyond Crystal Palace at 1-0 and 2-1.

Not surprisingly, with Idrissa Gueye not fit to travel and Merlin Röhl having turned heads with his bustling display against City, David Moyes went with an unchanged line-up, one that retained Beto up front despite Thierno Barry’s two-goal turn on Monday.

And things went largely as anticipated in the early going, with Everton on the front foot and Iliman Ndiaye seeing a cross blocked behind for a corner from which Everton opened the scoring. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s delivery flicked off Michael Keane’s head and dropped invitingly for James Tarkowski to neatly side-foot inside the back post.

Immediately, however, the passage of play flipped, with Palace taking the initiative and Adam Wharton half-volleying narrowly over following a corner and Chris Richards seeing a goal-bound header diverted over Jordan Pickford’s crossbar by Tarkowski’s head.

Palace coming more into the game had the potential to suit Everton’s counter-attacking strategy, though, which almost paid dividends on the quarter-hour mark, when James Garner’s cross just eluded Röhl in the centre, and really should have done two minutes after that after Pickford had denied Daniel Muñoz at the other end.

The England keeper’s clearance put Dewsbury-Hall into the clear but, having kept his composure as the ball bobbled between his legs, he just needed to sweep it wide of Dean Henderson with enough purchase and he would have doubled Everton’s advantage. Sadly, his right-foot finish was weak and the goalkeeper gratefully smothered it.

11 minutes after that, Tim Iroegbunam, typically combative off the ball but erratic with it, found himself with the whole goal to aim at from the edge of the penalty area but his awful shot would have gone out for a throw-in if it had had enough power.

One more attack in transition in the 32nd minute saw Dewsbury-Hall driving forward but with just Beto to aim for, his attempted cross was blocked behind and the resulting corner came to nothing.

At the end of Palace’s next attack from the goal-kick, the Blues’ lead had been wiped out. Jorgen Strand Larsen came out of an aerial challenge with Keane and found Ismaila Sarr who fed Muñoz wide on the home side’s right flank.

He had space to centre low for Sarr in the box and when Keane could only block the Senegalese’s low shot back to him, Sarr banged home the rebound to level things up.

Tyrick Mitchell had a low effort saved by Pickford while Sarr smuggled an Ndiaye header off the line back at the other end as both sides went in search of the lead before half-time.

After Strand Larsen had miscued the first chance of the second half wide, Everton re-established their advantage with a superbly-taken goal by Beto in the 47th minute. Tarkowski had put the Portuguese-born striker in down the channel and after holding off Maxence Lacroix, he kept his balance well to feint one way before calmly slotting through the goalkeeper’s legs.

A foul on Röhl by Kamada set Garner up for a rare direct free-kick that took a slight nick off Strand Larsen and was pawed over this bar by Henderson as Everton kept the pressure up.

And when Pickford bowled the ball out with a deep throw and found Dewsbury-Hall, the Blues No 22 was again found wanting at the crucial moment as he opted to try and go wide of Henderson and was closed down by a combination of the keeper, Mitchell and Muñoz.

At the 70-minute mark, Moyes made his scheduled change, swapping Barry for Beto and Everton started to lose their way. Jaydee Canvot had just had an offside header caught by Pickford following a Palace corner but it was more slack defending that let Glasner’s side in once more with 13 minutes left of the 90.

Mitchell beat Röhl on the outside and centred low where substitute Jean-Philippe Mateta was allowed to step off Keane to meet it and convert a simple chance high into the net from seven yards out.

At this stage, only one team looked like it had been out celebrating on Thursday night and it wasn’t Palace. The Eagles had all the energy and momentum heading onto the final 10 minutes and they came close to grabbing the lead, first when Sarr failed to meaningfully test Pickford with a free header in front of goal and then when Mitchell bounced a header of his own past the post from a similar position.

As the clock approached 90 minutes, Wharton smacked a low strike off the outside of the post and that seemed to spark Everton into a belated late flurry where Ndiaye really should have settled the contest in Everton’s favour two minutes into time added on.

Tyrique George, again thrown on too late to have significant impact, played the Senegal international in but with the goal at his mercy and the points there to be taken, he lifted his shot high, allowing Henderson to help it over the bar.

Still there was time for both sides to mount last-ditch attacks. Mateta found himself in on goal but sliced his shot off target while Charly Alcaraz, an even later change for Dewsbury-Hall, fired an effort of his own that deflected behind off a defender.

So, another eminently winnable match that Everton had in their control slipped away to an unsatisfying conclusion. The point keeps the Blues in 10th place, level with Chelsea on 49 points but six behind Bournemouth in sixth. Though that potential extra Champions League spot is almost certainly now out of reach, wins in the last two would keep our chances of making the Conference League alive.

That would require Moyes’s charges seeing a game out, though, something they haven’t done since that euphoric but wholly misleading triumph over Chelsea in March. Since then, they’re winless in five matches and that, ultimately, could cost them their European dream.