Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Yobo, Distin, Baines, Rodwell, Bilyaletdinov, Cahill, Fellaini, Gosling, Yakubu

Bench: Nash, Jo (Gosling), Coleman, Agard (Yakubu), Duffy, Baxter, Wallace

Referee: Said Ennjimi

Sometimes in football, you just have to hold your hands up and say, yep we were beaten by the far superior side. In my view Thursday night was one of those nights when the Blues came up against one of Europe's heavyweight sides. Two goals against, Tim Howard pulling off a host of top draw saves, and one or two gilt edge chances fluffed by the Portuguese outfit went a long way to prove that our 5-0 bashing in Lisbon a fortnight ago was maybe not the fluke result we thought it was.

Admittedly we are still without a few of our own heavyweights in The Jag, Mikky, Nuts and Phil Neville, and any club would be lost without that quality not playing. Our bench resembled a kindergarten, but you don't hear Moyesy bemoan his luck, like some fat goateed bearded arse not far from Goodison, who shits his pants when he has one player out. We roll up our sleeves and get on with it.

Danny G Laaa came into the middle, but from the off it was apparent we had no creativity in the centre of the park. When they can leave the likes of World Cup veteran Pablo Aimar on the bench, you know from the eleven they assemble as their starting line up that they are something special. Yep they pissed us off with their theatrics, but hey that's European football, deal with it. Our first few chances at goal came in the last five minutes, whilst Benfica were already two up at that point. Both goals against once again came as a result from a comedy of defensive errors, ala ping pong in our own box.

Tim Howard pulled off not one but two world class saves to keep the score from reaching embarrassment levels again. The Blues huffed and puffed but our ploy of the long ball was easily snuffed out by the Benfica back men. The Yak was stifled at every turn, and on the rare occasion he shook his marker off, his shots went well wide of the mark.

We are clueless in the middle at the moment with no Nuts or Mikky to orchestrate the moves for us. We were easy pickings for the visitors, who after tonight have now qualified as Group Winners. Our game in Athens now takes on a whole new perspective. Bate and Athens drew 2-2, so were are now only two points clear of both the said two teams, with a tough away trip to Athens to follow. With 3,000 plus tickets in the mix, me feels that a gathering of the Blue clans in the Greek Capital will go ahead in early December, and yep its twitchy bum time.

Starman goes to Tim Howard who kept the score respectable, Bainsey ran him a close second. Keep believing all, its why were Blues.

Full Time 0-2

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Andy's Rankin

Marks Out Of 10
Player	Marks	Player	Marks
Howard	8	Jo	5
Baines	8	Agard	6
Hibbert	7
Distin	5
Yobo	6
Fellaini	6
Rodwell	7
Bilyaletdinov	6
Cahill	6
Gosling	6
Yakubu	7

Lavo Reports From Goodison Park

Today's Blue Kipper Star Man

Star Man

Stats

Goals

Bad Boys

Prem Table

UEFA Table

 

 

Phil Neville Presents Eusebio With a Celebration of His Goodison Scoring Feat in 1966

Tiny and Billy Don't Like Defeat

Like the Blues of late, my confidence has took a bashing, nah not because of my piss poor run of form at the bookies, because I am fed up getting knocked back by the fairer sex. Jesus look at me (see right), I am a catch yer know, it takes ages to accumulate that amount of body hair and blubber!!

Right then to the matter in hand and were do we find a win at home. Law of averages is a good one. A shit load of draws October, no win at Goodison since late September, but we have not played to bad. Loads of pressure, just bad luck and bad finishing. The bookies think at least we can do the Portuguese outfit tonight, pricing us up at 6/4 for the win (Benfica 11/5, draw 5/2). Benfica who admittedly played well and tore us apart the other week, are not the best travelers in Europe. They have not won in seven attempts on the European road, and you have to go back to a 2-1 Champions League win in 2007 against Shaktar Donetsk since their last away victory.

The Blues have a great home record in Europe and our loss to Villareall back in 2005 was our last defeat by foreign opposition at Goodiosn, a run that streches to nine home matches.

If you fancy another goal fest you can get over 2.5 goals at 6/5. First goal scorers are priced at The Yak and Jo 15/2, King Louis 13/2, and if you want a riot get on Hibbo at 80/1. Good luck to all.

Lavo's Best Bet: £10 a Blues win 6/4

For all Markets, click on the links: All Betfair Markets and Free £10 Bet

Season Total: £127

No Win in Five Fat Sack