As promised today I will look back over the weekend’s game against Everton, which was Swansea’s most important game of the season.
It was an FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley and was featured in live coverage on my own Twitter channel @CharlieTangoFM.
We took on Everton, managed by former Argentina and Barcelona manager Tata Martino, and it was tight, tense, all those wonderful adjectives for neutrals to enjoy but supporters of either club would have been in knots over. If any of the images are ever a little blurry, just click on them to open in a fresh, crisp and sharp new window.
Renato Sanches is our best player but has been inconsistent this season, which I’m sure sounds familiar. Under previous Swansea boss Stuart Reid, he was never truly fit but under myself, he is a player transformed, mostly because I have placed him in a central two in midfield alongside Tom Carroll, who sits and allows Sanches to motor up the pitch in a box-to-box role. He opened the scoring with a cracker from outside the box.
Lack of closing down from Everton, Sanches had so much time and space he could have had a coffee and a digestive biscuit!
At halftime the message was to preach calm and the nerves were tapered by our second goal, Sam Clucas getting up to direct in at the back post with what looked like a head but was actually a neat cushioned-volley. It was the classic Charlie Tango-Swansea goal with the ball being sprayed to the wing by one of the central midfielders (in this case Sanches) and the winger (Dyer) sticking in a lovely cross for one of the forwards or the opposite winger to get on the end of.
Everton pulled one back through Morgan Schneiderlin. A corner was cleared but kept alive by Mirallas, he played the ball to Schneiderlin to finish through a crowd of players and Swans’ goalkeeper Fabianski was unsighted. Everton should have been level late on as Sandro went clear through but some strange reason he passed to his left instead of striking on goal and the attack fizzled out.
Sandro fluffs his lines with the chance to equalise. This pass went all the way to the left to Sigurðsson, who tamely fired over.
What this all means is that wait for it, SWANSEA CITY ARE IN THE FA CUP FINAL! We’ll be playing Mark Hughes’ Stoke City after they needed extra time to overcome Crystal Palace in the second semi-final. That was just as tight, a goal from Raúl RuidÃaz on 100 minutes proved the difference.
The games come thick and fast so join us tomorrow for a preview of our midweek fixture against Leicester City, who have had quite the freefall. The former Premier League Champions are precariously dangling over the relegation trap door. Find out what went wrong tomorrow on Letou Choose.