published: thursday 17 december 2009, 22.50cet everton 0-1 fc bate borisov
aleksandr yurevich's 75th-minute goal downed a youthful everton side and ensured bate avoided the wooden spoon in group ı.
fc bate borisov ended their uefa europa league campaign on a winning note after aleksandr yurevich's first goal for the belarussian champions secured victory over an understrength everton side.
experience tells everton, already sure of second place in group ı and a last-32 berth, fielded a youthful lineup. bate's greater experience told as they controlled the game and earned their reward 15 minutes from time when sergei sosnovski teed up yurevich, who beat carlo nash from 20 metres with the help of a deflection off shane duffy.
seven teenagers on a freezing merseyside night, david moyes handed full debuts to five everton players and among the seven teenagers in royal blue was left-back jake bidwell, who, at 16 years and 271 days, displaced jack rodwell as the club's youngest-ever player in europe. unfortunately for moyes, rodwell, now an established first-teamer at 18, lasted only nine minutes before limping off clutching his hamstring – potentially an unwelcome addition to everton's long injury list.
bate control not surprisingly, a full-strength bate side had the better of a first half where everton's only meaningful goal attempt came when kieran agard flashed an angled shot over the crossbar. sosnovski, with a header, and ıgor shitov, with a shot, spurned openings from corners before aleksandr volodko fired straight at nash from the edge of the box.
unwitting role viktor goncharenko's men almost grabbed the lead moments before the break when vitali rodionov beat jose baxter before setting up danger man sergei krivets, whose shot deflected behind off duffy. duffy was in the right place again after 62 minutes, clearing off the line after pavel nekhaychik, breaking on to krivets' through ball, had rounded nash and steered a shot goalwards. he would be less fortunate with his unwitting role in yurevich's winner that secured bate third place in the section.
