Source: Liverpool_Echo
Leighton Baines confident Everton will see off BATE Borisov in Europa League
IT says everything about the confidence currently sweeping through Everton’s squad that the biggest worry they had heading east yesterday was negotiating passport control.
While obtaining the necessary documentation to enter Belarus has, for some, proven to be a headache ever since the Blues itinerary for Group I was published – it was equally fraught at the airport – the game against BATE Borisov should be less problematic.
Buoyed by a sequence of four consecutive wins that began two weeks ago with the 4-0 thrashing of AEK Athens, all the signs are pointing towards Everton getting into the stubborn mindset that sees them grind out good result after good result.
Relishing a workload that carries them from one game to the next, there is no chance of Everton treating the Europa League as lightly as certain other clubs have or will; as far as David Moyes and company are concerned, the more they play, the merrier they are.
During the past two seasons, you see, some of Everton’s best football has been produced during the middle of hectic sequences, so it is no surprise to see Leighton Baines rub his hands as he considers the prospect of so many ‘three game’ weeks.
For though the signs have been encouraging, Baines – who can always be relied upon to give an honest opinion – insists this Everton squad has plenty of scope for improvement; what’s more, he thinks they will need to show it here in Minsk.
BATE might not be a household name but they are certainly capable – they drew with Juventus twice in the Champions League last season – and Baines knows nothing other than a professional job will see the Blues through.
“We have got to be confident,” he said following a typically intense training session in the Dynamo Stadium. “We have started winning games.
“Okay, we are not going to kid ourselves on and try to tell everyone we are playing great football because we are not.
“But when you are in the kind of groove we are in, you believe more and more.
