Everton ready for Italian test
06 Mar 2008 - 07:51:03
Everton's players have flown to Florence in confident mood ahead of their UEFA Cup tie with Fiorentina.
The 1990 finalists are fourth in Serie A after beating Juventus 3-2 on Sunday but are currently without former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu who has been in lethal form so far this term. The Romania international is out for a month with a knee injury.
However, Everton, who are currently fifth in the Premier League, believe they have what it takes to progress to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup.
"To play in Europe and to have not been beaten yet in the UEFA Cup and the fact that we have quality players means we can get into the UEFA Cup final," Nigerian striker Ayegbeni Yakubu said this week.
Team-mates Tim Howard and Steven Pienaar are more cautious in their analysis of the challenge facing the Toffees, with Howard mentioning the "perfect" organisational and tactical skills of their opponents.
Howard told Everton's official website: "It's the last 16, there's no easy teams, we know that, but as you've seen recently we're up for it.
"They're going to take some breaking down but as you've seen over our European journey we've broken teams down and we've had the patience to do that."
South Africa international Pienaar added: "Fiorentina are a big team. They've got history, they also play in a big league and have got quality players.
"This is a good time to test ourselves against good opponents and we're all looking forward to the game. Football is a game of surprises and we can go out there and surprise them."