Everton's European hopes fade further, but Moyes not waving white flag

LONDON, May 10 : Everton's hopes of European football suffered another setback as David Moyes' side were held to a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace on Sunday, extending their winless run to five Premier League matches.

The result leaves Everton 10th in the table on 49 points, six back of the top six with two games remaining. Yet Moyes found cause for optimism in simply being in contention at this stage of the season.

"It's amazing that we are actually talking about Everton possibly being in Europe with two games to go — and we're not out of it yet," Moyes told the BBC. "It's getting tougher every game we're not winning."

Everton last played in the Champions League 20 years ago, and most recently played in the Europa League in 2017-18.

Forward Beto, who scored Everton's second goal, remained defiant despite the disappointment.

"It is a little bit disappointing to get one point, but the game was really difficult," he told Sky Sports. "They have good players and a good manager. We are still fighting, we need to keep going and try to win the next two games."

Moyes lamented his side's failure to put away their chances.

"We did OK," he said. "We gave up some chances, the game could have been 4-4 or 5-5 at one point. We are trying to win at the moment but we missed some big chances to make it 2-0.

"They did as well, but we had a chance to go 2-0 and we didn't take it. Maybe if we had got that after midweek it might have been a different game. Credit to Crystal Palace, they stuck in."

Everton's James Tarkowski struck in the sixth minute when he tapped in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's corner at the back post.

Ismaila Sarr levelled in the 34th minute when he fired home the rebound of his own shot from close range, for his first league goal since