In the chill of a Merseyside January, the ancient magic of the FA Cup was conjured not by a storied favorite but by a determined challenger and a calamitous collapse.
Sunderland, the Premier League visitors, marched into Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium and executed a clinical, unyielding performance, only for the drama of football to be compressed into a late, controversial penalty and a subsequent shootout of sheer humiliation for the home side.
When the final, decisive spot-kick rippled the net, it was Sunderland who progressed to the fourth round with a 3-0 penalty victory after a 1-1 draw, leaving Everton’s season at another disheartening crossroads and their supporters’ boos echoing long into the afternoon.
The backdrop to this third-round tie was one of starkly contrasting narratives. For Everton, the occasion was overshadowed by self-inflicted wounds and a growing injury crisis.
Manager David Moyes, approaching the anniversary of his emotionally charged return to the club, had spoken in the preceding days of rebuilding, progression, and even the distant dream of European football. That optimism felt like a relic from a bygone age as he was forced to name a threadbare squad.
The costly indiscipline of Michael Keane, whose red card for hair-pulling against Wolverhampton Wanderers was upheld on appeal, and Jack Grealish, dismissed in the same match, robbed the team of a key defender and its creative spark. They joined a lengthy absentee list that included the influential Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, the Senegal internationals Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye, and several others, stretching the Toffees’ resources to their absolute limit.
Sunderland, under Régis Le Bris, arrived with no such turmoil. Enjoying a fine Premier League campaign themselves, they carried a quiet confidence and a tactical plan executed with near-perfect precision for eighty-nine minutes.
The first half was a masterclass in controlled away performance. They dictated the tempo, enjoyed the majority of possession, and slowly squeezed the life from both the game and a restless home crowd.
Everton, with Beto isolated up front and the young Tyler Dibling ineffective, offered nothing resembling a sustained threat. The breakthrough, when it came in the 30th minute, was one of pure quality.
Athrow-in was not properly cleared, and the ball fell to French midfielder Enzo Le Fée just inside the area. With impeccable technique, he swept a first-time, curling volley across Jordan Pickford and into the far corner, a moment of brilliance that served as just reward for Sunderland’s dominance.
Everton’s response was feeble. Sunderland continued to create the clearer chances, with Romaine Mundle forcing a fine save from Pickford and the Everton defense looking perpetually unsettled.
The half-time whistle was met with a smattering of boos, a sound that reflected the growing disillusionment within the new stadium’s walls. Moyes’s men improved marginally after the break, showing more intent but still lacking the guile to unlock a well-organized Black Cats rearguard.
Harrison Armstrong sliced an early chance over, and Beto directed a tame header straight at goalkeeper Robin Roefs. At the other end, the dangerous Mundle and Eliezer Mayenda continued to probe, with the latter clipping a shot agonizingly wide of the post when a second Sunderland goal seemed inevitable.
As the clock ticked towards ninety minutes, the narrative seemed set: a competent, professional away victory for Sunderland, and a meek, cup exit for a struggling Everton. Then, with a debutant’s intervention and a referee’s decision, the script was torn apart.
In the 86th minute, Moyes turned to academy product Adam Aznou, handing the 19-year-old his first senior appearance. His impact was immediate and transformative.
Just two minutes later, Aznou’s bustling run and low cross was blocked. Showing remarkable tenacity, he chased down the rebound, drove into the box, and was brought down by a trailing leg from Sunderland’s Trai Hume.
Referee John Brooks pointed to the spot without hesitation, a decision Sunderland’s players protested vehemently, Granit Xhaka earning a booking for his dissent. The lifeline, however soft it appeared to the visitors, had been thrown. James Garner, embodying coolness amidst the chaos, stepped up and slid his penalty under the diving Roefs to spark delirious, if slightly relieved, celebrations.
The equalizer forced extra time, a period where both teams, visibly fatigued, traded half-chances but seemed increasingly resigned to the lottery of penalties. Beto lashed a shot into the side netting, while at the other end, a Xhaka effort took a hefty deflection off James Tarkowski and flashed just wide of Pickford’s goal.
The final whistle confirmed the shootout, setting the stage for one of the most one-sided and technically poor penalty sequences in recent memory.
What followed was less a contest of nerve and more a public exhibition of Everton’s shattered confidence. James Garner, who had scored the late equalizer, went first. His shot, low to the keeper’s right, was too close to Roefs, who palmed it away.
Sunderland’s Enzo Le Fée, exorcising the ghosts of a recent failed ‘Panenka’ against Brentford, hammered his kick high past Pickford. The collapse accelerated with Everton’s second penalty. Substitute Thierno Barry, who had struggled throughout his appearance, took a stuttering, hesitant run-up and produced a weak effort that Roefs again saved diving to his right.
Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka then blasted his team into a commanding 2-0 lead. The final act of the tragedy belonged to Beto. The striker, who had toiled without reward for 120 minutes, offered a tame, poorly placed shot that Roefs, diving to his left, comfortably gathered.
Before Everton could even take a fourth penalty, Luke O’Nien, the Sunderland veteran playing his first start of the season, stepped up and smashed his shot high down the middle to seal a 3-0 shootout triumph and send the traveling supporters into raptures.