Bucharest European Preview

By John P
September 13 2005

Everton face Dinamo Bucharest away from home in the first leg of the UEFA Cup, but this could be a sticky encounter for the Toffee's. Dinamo have scored 15 goals in 5 games, 9 of which have been scored at home and conceeded just 2 goals in 5 games for the current domestic Season.

However, they are not solid defensively, Grasshoper scored 6 past them a few seasons ago in 2 legs of UEFA cup, and in the previous round, Omonia Nicosia gave them a shock by scoring within 4 minutes. The free kick danger seems to come from Vlad Munteanu who can really hit it, although it was 11 metres out against Nicosia. Another free kick from 5 metres out sealed the victory as Ianis Zicu flopped to the floor. This is a team that likes to run forward, but this is also a team that likes to hit the floor and will do so against a physical Everton side.

Let's not forget that Manchester United conceeded a goal against this team little under a year ago. The atmosphere at their poor stadium drives this team and the main issue for Everton is to not to conceed and even try and score an away goal. With only scoring 1 goal in 4 games the odds are looking stacked against Everton walking away unscathed from the away leg, however, away from home we have only conceeded 1 goal.

If we can produce the sort of football and pure guts like we did against Villareal then we should go far in this competition.

Probable Lineup: Martyn, Valente, Yobo, Weir, Hibbert, Arteta, Kilbane, Davies, Cahill, Bent, Beattie (4-4-2)