Cahill pays tribute to victims of tsunami

BATE Borisov 1 Everton

(AFp/getty images)

Everton shrugged off the loss of 10 first-team players to record a superb victory in the Europa League in Belarus thanks to Tim Cahill's goal 13 minutes from time. In the process, David Moyes' side have taken a massive step towards securing a place in the next stage after their second successive win in the group.

Cahill capped a superb comeback after Marouane Fellaini had hauled Everton level in the 68th minute with his first goal of the season. The Australian dedicated his winner to the victims of the Samoa tsunami. Cahill, who was born in Sydney to a Samoan mother and represented Western Samoa at under-20 level as a 14-year-old, appeared to mime out rowing a boat after scoring.

Cahill said: "Me and my family are from Samoa, I've got a lot of family there that were caught in the tsunami, and it's just sad. [The celebration] was a little bit of a tribute, there are a lot of people going through a hard time at the moment, not just in Samoa but in Asia. I just felt in my heart it was the right thing to do."

BATE took the lead when Dmitri Likhtarovich scored a goal out of the blue, latching on to a loose ball 30 yards out and thumping a shot high over goalkeeper Tim Howard.

Everton drew level in the 68th minute when BATE failed to deal with a Leighton Baines free-kick. Fellaini got on the end of it at the far post and found the corner of the net. They went ahead in the 77th minute after a swift counter-attack that stunned the hosts. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov headed the ball on and Cahill sprang the offside trap before hoisting a shot over the goalkeeper. It was a remarkable turnaround by Everton and testimony to their fighting spirit after such an indifferent first half. Moyes said: "It was a really pleasing result, considering the number of players who were not available."

BATE Borisov Veremko; Sosnovskiy, Shitov, Yurevich, Likhtarovich, Krivets, Nekhaychik, Pavlov (Volodko, 78), Bordachov, Skavysh (Stasevich, 28), Rodionov. Substitutes not used: Hutar (gk), Radkov, Rzhevskiy, Baga, Goaryan

Everton Howard; Hibbert, Baines, Distin, Bilyaletdinov (Baxter, 90), Cahill, Gosling, Osman, Fellaini, Jo, Yakubu (Agard, 79). Substitutes not used: Nash (gk), Duffy, Mustafi, Wallace, Akpan.

Referee: P Balaj (Romania).