Everton winger Kevin Mirallas has admitted that he expected to be sent off against Liverpool last weekend following a challenge on Luis Suarez.

Mirallas went into the tackle with studs showing and caught Suarez's knee, but escaped with a caution as he helped the Toffees split a six-goal thriller in Saturday's Merseyside derby.

The Belgian international has conceded that he was braced to get his marching orders from referee Phil Dowd, but believes that the intense derby atmosphere may have been a contributing factor to a yellow card being deemed sufficient.

He told The Guardian: "When I made the challenge, the first thing I thought was that it was going to be a red card.

"I was genuinely going for the ball but I know I caught him on the knee and I said sorry straight away. I might have been OK because it was the derby, because in those matches there is always a lot of contact, a lot of tackles going in.

"There is a lot of pressure on the players and the fans in these sort of games. Sometimes when you put a tackle in you think: 'Oh shit,' like this one."

Mirallas scored the opening goal and helped create two others for Romelu Lukaku in a frenetic clash, which finished 3-3 thanks to a late equaliser from Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge.