Fulham manager Marco Silva was thrilled with his players after they made history in taking Fulham to a first ever Carabao Cup Semi-Final.
On a tense evening at Goodison Park, the Whites triumphed 7-6 on penalties after drawing 1-1 in normal time.
“We are all delighted, no doubt about it,” he said. “It was clearly our aim to come here and to go through in the competition, and we did it.
“We knew before the match that it is going to be really tough, a proper cup tie. I know what it means to play here at Goodison when they are in a good moment, when they are in good form, when everybody's on the same page, and we felt that tonight.
“Our second half was more difficult, I have to say. In the first half we kept the ball more and we played more in our way, we had the capacity to keep some possession, to calm down the game, to not let the game go always in their physicality.
“I felt the home support always there and I know how they can lift them every time in the moments that they can be struggling in the game. Even after we scored the 1-0, the support was always there.
“Second half we struggled a little bit, we were not able to keep the ball, we gave the ball away many times, and of course they sustained the pressure.
“I believe that we defended our box well until they equalised in a moment when we were really under pressure, a moment when I was preparing a tactical change.
“I really believe that after the 1-1, when we changed the system to five at the back, we started to control a little bit more. The game started to be a bit broken – chances for us and for them.
“The last 10 minutes was really tense. And, as I said, a proper cup tie.”
Everton initially had the advantage in the penalty shootout when Jordan Pickford denied Bobby De Cordova-Reid, but Bernd Leno then saved from Amadou Onana, before Idrissa Gueye struck a post.
“I have to mention, in a tense evening, the way our players kept the composure in that penalty shootout,” Silva stated. “It’s always a really tough moment when you play away from home.
“Huge moment from Bernd when he kept us in the game with the fifth penalty from Onana. I’m really delighted because it's not easy to keep the composure, the quality in the penalty shootout like we did.
“Congratulations for the players, for the fans that were here tonight. We achieved something that the Club never, never, never did in the past.
“We want more, but we are really delighted for the moment that we are living right now, but we want more. Now we are going to play the Semi-Finals, with the dream to go and play at Wembley.”