The Toffees went into Thursday night’s match with Liege as underdogs and, in the end, the Belgian champions proved too strong. While Everton may have deprived them of Marouane Fellaini over the two legs, Standard still proved too strong for their English opponents, playing a 4-5-1 formation to great effect. However, David Moyes claims that the referee was too easily swayed by the home crowd.

Setanta report that the Scot is pointing the finger at Peter Sippel for the Merseyside club’s early exist from the UEFA Cup, claiming that Liege should have had a player sent off, a decision which would have changed the course of the game. Most spectators will argue that their opponents were the better team over the two legs, but perhaps not the Everton manager!

Moyes said

: “I’m
thinking about the referee’s decision not to send off Defour, which I thought on two occasions was so poor.

“In England you’re
not allow

ed to do what he did to referees. Maybe in Europe it’s different.

“Then there was a professional foul after it, which was maybe another yellow car

d.

“I think the crowd were very good for Standard. They influenced the referee - they did a very good job.

“If he (Defour) had been sent off it would have made a difference because he’d
the shot that led to their first goal.

“We were playing well against 11, so against ten we would have had more space.

“I think it (a dismissal) would have made a massive

difference to the tie at that time.”

Everton fans, do you agree

with your manager’s verdict, or were you just not good enough on the night? Surely reaching the group stages was the minimum requirement as far as Europe is concerned, whereas the only competition left to challenge for is the FA Cup.

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