Martinez hoping Kyiv win will be turning point
Roberto Marinez is taking nothing for granted in Everton’s attempts to reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
The Everton boss is not convinced his side are favourites to reach the last eight after their 2-1 win over Dynamo Kyiv.
Martinez is hoping instead that producing a stirring fightback after a terrible start could spark a turning point in their season.
Everton fell behind to a Oleg Gusev’s early strike for Dynamo but a spirited display, with Steven Naismith and the impressive Romelu Lukaku finding the net, gives them hope of a quarter-final place.
Martinez said: “I couldn’t be prouder of the reaction. It was a real contrast, because we didn’t get into the game in the first 20 minutes, conceded a poor goal, but then our mentality and resilience was incredible.
“We scored a very good goal, and suddenly had a lot more freedom.
“In the second half we had complete control, and produced wave after wave. I think this has to be a turning point for us – when we got that expression in our team we showed we are an outstanding football team with an enormous amount of potential.”
Goalscorer Lukaku himself bagged the winning penalty which made him Everton’s all-time leading goalscorer in European competitions and believes his side are favourites to progress.
When asked if Everton were now favourites, Lukaku said: “Yeah, definitely.
“It’s going to be difficult over there.
“We are happy with the performance, we worked well after the first half and were unlucky to concede. We reacted well, kept going and could have scored three goals to be safe.”
Naismith grabbed crucial goal
Written by: Ray Ryan
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