Toffees celebrate Stracqualursi strike

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Everton 2-0 Blackpool

Goals from Royston Drenthe and Denis Stracqualursi allowed Everton to cruise through to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 2-0 win over Blackpool.

The home side were ahead inside the first minute when Magaye Gueye broke down the left and crossed for Marouane Fellaini who took a touch and laid it off to Drenthe to curl home past Matt Gilks.

Blackpool had barely had a touch by the time the home side doubled their lead in the sixth minute.

A poorly defended corner landed at the feet of Stracqualursi who was allowed far too much time inside the six yard box before he tapped home.

Two goals to the good inside the opening ten minutes, Everton proceeded to kill off the game, refusing to allow Blackpool the time and space to carve an opening.

Chances were few and far between for the visitors and the closest they came to pulling one back saw Kevin Phillips fire in a free-kick which skimmed the top of the bar with Tim Howard beaten.

Everton had plenty of chances of their own, with Fellaini being particularly wasteful and spurning free headers on more than one occasion.

The midfielder should have killed things off completely when Stracqualursi’s flick fell for him but his shot was cleared off the line by Bob Harris.

There was a hint of a grandstand finish when John Heitinga and Roman Bednar both went tumbling in the Everton box and Michael Oliver awarded a penalty, but Phillips’ tame effort ballooned over the bar and with it went Blackpool’s faint hopes.