Everton and Wolfsburg are playing in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday and the match starts up at 3 pm ET from Goodison Park and has the EPL club there for the first time in four years against Wolfsburg and now the Toffees will have Samuel Eto'o and that should give the team a major boost and the match is streaming live from Fox Soccer 2 Go.
The Premier League team has to deal with the Bundesliga side and this matchup has Everton's Romelu Lukaku looking to play well and get things going for his team. Everton manager Roberto Martinez has his side ready and he said that they have been training hard for the game and they know what's at stake. The team finished high enough to get in here from the Premier League last season and now the Europe League champs get into the Champions League, meaning that all teams have the chance to move up if they play well.
Eto'o and Lukaku are the key players for Everton and they will be looked at to handle things and on the Wolfsburg side, it will be old man Ivica Olic as the main target. Everton was able to keep things clean their last time out in the Premier League with a win against West Brom and that was on the road and while they drew with Leicester City and Arsenal while allowing two goals in each game, they are looking to keep things going here.
The team comes in after a win away and that came after a rough loss at home against Chelsea that saw the team allow six goals and now they come home and will try and push that aside. The schedule doesn't get easy and after playing against Crystal Palace the team has to travel to Anfield to play against Liverpool. Everton is looking forward to being on a European Stage and this is the chance for the team to make a nice run and while this is not as big as the Champions League, it is for these teams and the Toffees have a chance to make an impact here and it starts with the group stage.
Martinez said that while his team may not be ready for the Champions League, this is a way for them to get tested and if it goes well, they could end up there eventually. The team had their chances last season late to move up and get into Champions League qualifications, but they couldn't quite make it there and now they are in the Europa with Tottenham.
Everton knows what they have ahead of them and they will have a road match in Russia to face FC Krasnodar and the other two teams in the group with the toffees are Wolfsburg and Lille. Everton last made it into the European tournaments a few years ago and they ended up with a loss in the last 32 tie with sporting Lisbon and they are hoping for a much better run this time.
