Everton 2-2 Leicester City (2-4 pens): Vardy keeps his cool to send Foxes through on penalties

Liverpool, December 19: Duncan Ferguson suffered his first defeat as Everton's interim manager as Leicester City booked their place in the EFL Cup semi-finals with a penalty shoot-out victory at Goodison Park.

Carlo Ancelotti is reportedly close to taking over at Everton, who had beat Chelsea and drawn with Manchester United under Ferguson, whose side fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 in normal time to set up penalties.

After quickfire goals from James Maddison and Jonny Evans had put Leicester in control, Everton rallied through Tom Davies and Leighton Baines' stoppage-time stunner.

But Baines could not repeat his heroics from the spot as he, along with Cenk Tosun, failed to beat Kasper Schmeichel - the Premier League's leading scorer Jamie Vardy ensuring Leicester's place in the last four.

Never in doubt 😅

— Leicester City (@LCFC) December 18, 2019

Despite a shaky start, Leicester took the lead when Maddison sent a fine, outside-of-the-boot finish arrowing into the bottom-left corner in the 26th minute.

It was 2-0 three minutes later - Evans getting the better of Michael Keane to nudge home Vardy's flick-on from Maddison's corner, though Yerry Mina should have pulled one back soon after.

With Moise Kean, who was brought on from the bench and then taken off after 19 minutes at Old Trafford on Sunday, having been introduced for the hosts, Ayoze Perez went close with a rasping strike which Jordan Pickford did well to keep out.

Mina missed another glorious chance prior to the hour, failing to make contact with a free header yards from Schmeichel's goal, before Pickford denied Dennis Praet and Marc Albrighton hit the crossbar.

Everton made their good fortune count - Davies volleying in to keep their chances alive, setting the stage for Baines to pick out the top-left corner from long range in the 91st minute.

But it was not to be for Everton, with Schmeichel making two successive saves from Baines and Tosun before Vardy slammed home the winning spot-kick.