Romelu Lukaku shrugged off the first challenge without even breaking his stride. He bulldozed through the second and bounced off the third, leaving white shirts at his feet and mayhem in his wake. As he finally ground to a halt, he still had the presence of mind to stab the ball to Steven Naismith, racing ahead of him. The Scotland striker’s finish was a fine, neat one, but it paled in comparison to what went before.
This was Lukaku at his best, all rippling power and unyielding purpose. It was Lukaku the force of nature, the player of last season, the striker Everton obliterated their transfer record to sign in the summer. It was not the Lukaku that they have seen much of this season; it was not even the Lukaku they had seen much of in this game.
Just a few minutes previously, the Belgium forward had offered a vignette to encapsulate his campaign so far. Oleksandr Shovkovskiy, Dynamo Kiev’s evergreen, ever-unreliable goalkeeper, had raced 40 yards off his line to beat Lukaku to a long ball. He had done so, but sliced his clearance straight to the 21-year-old. Lukaku was a long way out, but a simple shot on target would have been enough. His effort troubled the corner flag more than the net.
That an evening that began in such fashion should end with Lukaku scoring the winning goal from the penalty spot and describing one of the “best performances” of his career speaks volumes for what Roberto Martínez, who loves few words quite so much, would describe as his character. Everyone else may have doubted him this season, but it would not seem that Lukaku has.
Perhaps that is because, for all that his performances have been way below par, the goals have never dried up. His penalty — won by Leon Osman, clipping a cross against Danilo Silva’s right hand late on — made him Everton’s leading scorer in European competition. He is scoring at a faster rate than he managed in his breakthrough campaign last season.
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The hope, at Everton, has to be that this marks the point where the rest of his game catches up. Certainly they will need the good Lukaku to play as he did last night if they are to emerge unscathed from their return trip to Ukraine on Thursday.
This round-of-16 tie, thanks to Oleg Gusev’s away goal, remains very much in the balance and, for once, Martínez was not being diplomatic when he said that his side are not favourites to reach the quarter-finals and maintain their status as the Barclays Premier League’s unlikely standard-bearers in Europe.
They will not progress, by any stretch of the imagination, if they play as they did for the first 25 minutes at Goodison, a period when — as Lukaku admitted — “everyone up front was afraid to have the ball, putting the defenders and midfield in danger”. That was when Kiev seemed to be a class apart, when what Martínez had called their “pristine” continental campaign appeared to have crumbled at the first sight of a real challenge.
Gusev’s goal — stealing away from James McCarthy and clipping home Andriy Yarmolenko’s corner past Tim Howard — was no less than Sergei Rebrov’s side deserved. Goodison Park, increasingly fractious in this most frustrating of seasons, sensed that the hosts were being outclassed and a sense of mutiny bubbled up in the stands.
It was Lukaku, after both Phil Jagielka and Antolín Alcaraz had gone close, who quelled it. His run for Naismith’s goal set the tone for the last hour of the game. Everton, all of a sudden, were imbued with intent, reinvigorated by a shot of pure electricity. Kevin Mirallas might have teed up Lukaku to give them the lead just before the break and the Belgian, Arouna Koné and Naismith all went close after it.
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It was fitting, though, that Lukaku should prove the difference, stepping up to convert from the spot, handing Everton the slightest of advantages for the second leg. They have seen enough false dawns — from Lukaku, from the team — in these parts recently to suspect that corners turned lead only to blind alleys. This one feels different. It is in Kiev that they must prove it.
Everton (4-2-3-1): T Howard — S Coleman, A Alcaraz, P Jagielka, L Garbutt — J McCarthy, G Barry — S Naismith, R Barkley (sub: L Osman, 74min), K Mirallas (sub: A Koné, 64) — R Lukaku. Substitutes not used: J Robles, D Gibson, M Besic, C Atsu, T Browning. Booked: Mirallas.
Dynamo Kiev (4-2-3-1): O Shovkovskiy — D Vida, D Silva, A Dragovic, Antunes — S Sydorchuk, M Veloso (sub: Y Chumak, 84) — A Yarmolenko, V Buyalskiy (sub: D Garmash, 67), O Gusev (sub: A Kravets, 76) — D Mbokani. Substitutes not used: O Rybka, Y Khacheridi, V Kalitvintsev, L Teodorczyk. Booked: Mbokani.
Referee: C Velasco Carballo (Spain).
• Jonny Evans’ actions in spitting at Papiss Cissé were “simply disgusting”, an FA regulatory commission ruled. The Manchester United defender and Cissé, the Newcastle United forward, were charged after spitting at each other during the match at St James’ Park on March 4 in an incident missed by Anthony Taylor, the referee. Cissé accepted the charge and a seven-match ban, but Evans contested it. In its written reasons for Evans’ six-match ban, the commission stated: “It is clear that Mr Evans is looking directly and indeed aggressively at Mr Cissé. If he was, as alleged to be the case, a person who ‘habitually spits’, then the commission were concerned as to why he did not turn his head away from Mr Cissé when so spitting... the ordinary man in the street will find his action to be simply disgusting and should not be allowed in any walk of life.”