Manchester City Strike Late for 2-0 Victory at Everton

Soccer Football - Premier League - Everton v Manchester City - Goodison Park, Liverpool, Britain - April 19, 2025 Manchester City's Mateo Kovacic celebrates scoring their second goal Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff

Manchester City moved a step closer to Champions League football next season as Nico O’Reilly and Mateo Kovacic scored in the final five minutes to secure a 2-0 win over Everton in their Premier League clash at Goodison Park on Saturday.
City move up to fourth with 58 points from 33 matches, four points ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea and Aston Villa in seventh, but they have played a game more. The top five qualify for the Champions League next season.
O’Reilly stabbed the ball home from four meters after connecting with Matheus Nunes’s low cross before Kovacic drilled in the second goal from the edge of the box to make sure of the win.
It was hard work for City for 85 minutes as they battled to create clear-cut chances, while home defender James Tarkowski struck the post with a header from a corner in the first half for Everton, who remain 13th with 38 points from 33 games, Reuters reported.
There will be relief for City manager Pep Guardiola as his side came up against the fired-up hosts in a hostile atmosphere in the third-last league game at the famous old ground before Everton move to a new stadium on the banks of the River Mersey.
"We had to work hard," City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan told the BBC. "This ground is always tough to come and play at with the way they approach the game.
"We had to be careful, maybe at the beginning we didn't want to risk it too much. We came out in the second half to perform and we have done that in a brilliant way. Definitely deserved to get the three points."
The home side had their moments and their manager David Moyes can take some positives out of the game but was left to rue a hamstring injury to Tarkowski that forced the defender off.
"I thought for 60 minutes we were okay, we played well and gave them a good game," Moyes said. "Tarky (Tarkowski) coming off changes a lot of things in the game.
"Their subs made a difference and ours didn't. They took control in the second half."
Everton came closest in the first half when Tarkowski struck the post with a header from a corner, before Jake O’Brien headed off the line to keep out Kevin De Bruyne’s goal-bound shot.
City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega then made a superb point-blank save to stop Jarrad Branthwaite’s header.
But the visitors tightened their grip on the game in the closing stages and once O’Reilly opened the scoring the fight went out of the home side.