Half-Time Report: Xherdan Shaqiri puts Stoke City in front at Everton

Xherdan Shaqiri has netted his first two goals for Stoke City to give his side a 2-1 half-time lead away at Everton.

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After a quiet opening, Marko Arnautovic fired a shot wide from an acute angle, before a minute later, Romelu Lukaku blazed the ball over the crossbar after neat build-up play from Ross Barkley.

Just after the quarter-hour mark, Stoke broke the deadlock Bojan and Arnautovic combined to set up Shaqiri, who kept his composure to provide the finish inside the penalty area.

Six minutes later, Everton were level through Lukaku, who received a pass from James McCarthy before calmly slotting the ball past Jack Butland in the Stoke goal.

Everton were soon dealt a blow when McCarthy was forced off injured, but they continued to be a threat and Brendan Galloway should have done better after being teed up by Barkley, but the end result was a left-footed shot going a couple of yards wide of the post.

Stoke edged back in front in added-on time as Shaqiri netted his second, with the Swiss winger finding the back of the net in audacious fashion as he fired the ball on the half-volley over Tim Howard for one of the goals of the season.