Charly Alcaraz's Late Winner Sends Everton to Carabao Cup Fourth Round
Charly Alcaraz stepped off the bench and straight into the spotlight, smashing home an 80th-minute winner to fire Everton past a much-changed Wolves side and into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup with a 1-0 victory at Goodison Park.
He had been on the pitch for barely three minutes.
One touch to settle. One swing of his right boot. One ruthless, curling finish from inside the area that finally broke a stubborn visiting resistance and kept Everton’s unbeaten start to the season intact.
For Alcaraz, it was a long time coming. Just his second goal for the club, arriving 13 months after his first, also in this competition. The release was obvious. So was the roar from the stands.
Everton turn the screw
Everton had earned it. They pressed, probed and pushed a heavily rotated Wolves side back for long spells, refusing to let the tie drift.
Wolves, who made nine changes from the team that beat Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in the league, never quite found their rhythm. Their weekend match-winner Raul Jimenez was handed a start but his night ended in worrying fashion, forced off with an injury midway through the first half.
That change dragged more of the initiative towards Everton. The Premier League side began to pin their Championship visitors deeper, and by the end of the first half the game was being played almost entirely in Wolves territory.
Virginia’s resistance
If the scoreline stayed level for as long as it did, Joao Virginia was the reason.
On his Wolves debut, and facing his former club, the goalkeeper produced a string of sharp interventions, the standout coming in first-half stoppage time. Thierno Barry’s close-range header looked destined for the corner, only for Virginia to explode across his line and claw it away with a superb reflex stop.
The pattern barely changed after the break. Everton kept asking questions. Wolves clung on.
At the other end, Jordan Pickford had almost nothing to do until early in the second half, when Adam Armstrong – on in place of the injured Jimenez – finally registered the visitors’ first shot on target. Pickford read it, set himself, and beat it away. One chance, snuffed out.
The pressure kept building.
Virginia again came to Wolves’ rescue when Everton substitute Brennan Johnson broke through, standing tall to block and briefly quieten Goodison. It felt, for a moment, as if the tie might drag into something more attritional.
Then Alcaraz arrived.
A strike fit for the occasion
Introduced from the bench with 10 minutes to go, the midfielder wasted no time. Given half a yard inside the box, he whipped a powerful, arcing effort beyond Virginia, who this time had no answer. The net bulged, the stadium erupted, and the resistance finally cracked.
In the stands, the significance of the goal was not lost. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham watched on alongside his Canadian counterpart and fellow Everton supporter Mark Carney, both on their feet as the ball flew in. For David Moyes and his players, it was another step in a campaign that is starting to feel like it might actually lead somewhere.
Everton have not lifted a major trophy since 1995. Nights like this keep that long wait alive with just enough hope to make the next round feel a little bigger, the next tie a little sharper.
The hunt for silverware goes on.
