PL | Manchester City strike late for 2-0 victory at Everton

Liverpool: Manchester City moved a step closer to Champions League football next season as Nico O’Reilly and Mateo Kovacic scored in the final five minutes to secure a 2-0 win over Everton in their Premier League clash at Goodison Park on Saturday.

City move up to fourth with 58 points from 33 matches, four points ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea and Aston Villa in seventh, but they have played a game more. The top five qualify for the Champions League next season.

O’Reilly stabbed the ball home from four metres after connecting with Matheus Nunes’s low cross before Kovacic drilled in the second from the edge of the box to make sure of the win.

It was hard work for City for 85 minutes as they battled to create clear-cut chances, while home defender James Tarkowski struck the post with a header from a corner in the first half for Everton, who remain 13th with 38 points from 33 games.

There will be relief for City manager Pep Guardiola as his side came up against the fired-up hosts in a hostile atmosphere in the third-last league game at the famous old ground before Everton move to a new stadium on the banks of the River Mersey.

The home side had their moments and their manager David Moyes can take some positives out of the game but, as has been the case for much of the season, Everton lacked quality in the final third to punish their opponents.

They came closest in the first half when Tarkowski struck the post with a header from a corner, before Jake O’Brien headed off the line to keep out Kevin De Bruyne’s goal-bound shot.

City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega made a superb point-blank save to stop Jarrad Branthwaite’s header as Everton made a bright start to the second period.

But they lost Tarkowski to injury in the 52nd minute, with the centre back having started every Premier League game since his arrival on Merseyside, a run of 109 in a row, and after that the best chances fell to City.

Forward Omar Marmoush could not capitalise on Everton substitute Michael Keane’s error when the latter tried to head the ball back to Jordan Pickford, as the keeper came out smartly to smother the Egyptian's shot.

But the visitors tightened their grip on the game in the closing stages and once O’Reilly opened the scoring the fight went out of the home side.