Lyon v Everton: Europa League – live!

Evening everyone. It’s tricky to gauge the significance of this fixture in the overall scheme of Everton’s calamity-strewn season, though social justice’s Neville Southall reckons “this November and December may be most important time in Everton’s history”. They’re in a relegation scrap, they’re scrabbling around for a new permanent manager, and need an unlikely upswing in form to qualify for the Europa League knockout stages after a group campaign characterised by abject surrenders (Atalanta away), limp late goal concessions (Apollon Limasol at home) and angry toddler-carrying dads in the crowd getting involved in argy-bargy (Lyon at home). The only way is up from here then.
Everton probably need to win this to have any chance of going through, should they be so minded. Ronald Koeman’s team selections suggested an ambivalent attitude to the competition, and his replacement, David Unsworth, may be of a similar mind: he has opted to leave Wayne Rooney, Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka at home tonight, and will also be without the injured Michael Keane, one of a number of the club’s trumpeted summer signings to have toiled this term. But Unsworth is after a permanent job, and needs some kind of performance after Sunday’s poor showing at Leicester, in which he had to pretty much tear up his starting formation after a torrid first half. While Unsworth fiddles and seeks to rouse his side, others continue to be linked with his job, ranging from Burnley’s Sean Dyche of Burnley to Wolves’ and Pedro Mendes’s Nuno Espírito Santo.
Tonight Everton are up against a Lyon side handily placed in second in the group, and going well domestically too, nestled in third place and only seven points behind Ligue 1’s Qatari overlords at the top, who are the only team to have beaten them in the league, back in mid-September. Bruno Génésio’s side have won their last three league games, and after a summer of player turnover look to be hitting their stride a bit. Nabil Fekir has scored five in his last four matches. Everton have scored seven in the league all season. Lyon are favourites basically.
Kick-off 6pm GMT.

SOURCE : GUARDIAN SPORTS
posted by CAMPUS94