Benefica at Goodison Park
Submitted by
BillyIdle on Wed, 11/04/2009 at 10:58pm.
David Moyes is determined that Everton will restore their battered reputation in Europe on Thursday. Benfica arrive at Goodison Park after inflicting a damaging 5-0 defeat on his side in Lisbon.
However they remain among the favourites to progress from Group I in the Europa League and their unbeaten home run at this level stretches to an impressive nine games.
Moyes said: "We do not use the word revenge but pride is at stake. We are hurting from the Benfica game and the result. "Hopefully we can do something about it. We want to progress in the group, that is the important thing. "It is great we are talking about expectations in Europe because that has not been the case for a long time.
"We are going to have a go and get a result. A point would not be a bad thing the way the group is going. "The key is to qualify, that's our aim and we could find ourselves closer to that target tomorrow. We have to play much better than we did in Lisbon."
Even though Benfica are without a victory in seven European matches on the road, Moyes is not underestimating his opponents. "We do know the dangers Benfica pose and it is not easy to stop them. However I hope we can cause them some problems on our own ground."
American goalkeeper Tim Howard is desperate to put that mauling by Benfica to bed. He said: "It is important we can back on track and get through the group. We have been excited by the challenge the last couple of years. ""There will be some big teams coming into the knockout stages, dropping down from Champions League, so for me it is special. Howard added: "Different managers have put out different sides in Europe with the Premier League in mind. "Our manager tries to put out his strongest team in every competition. We take it very seriously."
Moyes will be again down on numbers as John Heitinga and Lucas Neill are sidelined as they are both ineligible. Louis Saha (calf), Tony Hibbert (flu) are doubtful through injury and illness but Steven Pienaar could be on the bench after a knee problem.
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