Everton drawn against Brann or Ruzomberok

Ružomberok (SVK) or Brann (NOR)

Brann won 1:0 away in the first match.

First leg at Goodison Park

Still, with the new players in early and the preseason up and running, should be a non event. Just need to be professional over there and take them back to Goodison Park for a a damn good thrashing!

Their few fans never stopped singing, I think we even cheered when they got a goal.

Take nothing for granted, but should have no worries with either of the two.

Liam, concentrate on the footy will yer?

Pickford
Kenny; Keane; Jagielka; Baines;
Schneiderlin; Klaassen; Davies; Lookman
Rooney; Sandro

So stronger now than 21 February 2008? Will we win by more than 8-1 on aggregate?

Probably not as big a win as they are well into their season having already played 16 games. A recent stutter (6 points from last 15) has seen them fall back from just 1 point behind the leaders into a 3 way tie for 2nd place in the league.

We should win, but we will know we have been in a game. Probably be seen by Koeman as a good pre-season workout. It is also, given the demands upon him, a game he cannot take lightly and go out at this stage.

"Maaaam"?

" Whaaat"?

"Where does poo go when you flush it down the toilet"?

"Just across Stanley Park, now leave me in peace."

Had to wiki the place and its in the middle of nowhere, about 250 km from the capital city, Bratislava. That won't be a fun trip out. Given the town has a population of 30,000 (am not missing a 0), can only guess what the facilities will be like.

Brann will be a tougher match but we should be okay with either. Would prefer the Norwegians so our lads have a proper work out and are tested.

Ruzomberok are a mouthful as well as a handful.

2008 team looks stronger and probably one of the best I can think of for a number of years with perhaps only the addition of Baines the obvious improvement to 'steady' Valente at left-back.

Fantastic, you should be on the stage!

Remember the police at the airport with plenty of dogs expecting some ravenous hordes! Didn't think too much of the town to be honest. Just for jollies I hope it's Slovakia.

We were paying the same and a lad told us there was a happy hour round the corner. Went there, £6 a pint! It wasn't a very happy hour (or 3)

The fact that they're are mid-season and we will be barely up and running is a worry. But we have probably spent more this summer than SK Brann of the Blackwater has spent in its entire history which makes me feel better about it.

As Tim mentioned, Saints and West Ham both suffered embarrassing defeats at the hands of Eastern European minnows in the last few years. These teams are an unknown quantity and especially playing in front of a hostile crowd in a tiny stadium and still technically in pre-season mode is a recipe for disaster.

For the travelling Blues save yer pennies' for ale in Norway, if it's Slovakia fill yer boots!

Great to be back in Europe... this is no Mickey Mouse Cup anymore, win this & we're dining at the top table. If the Mancs can win it, then so can we!!!

They've been on good form this season though, with a solid defense and some attractive play up front, so hopefully they'll get through to the next round to actually meet us. They should but cup is cup. They got a decent stadium with a capacity of 15,000+ so there should be plenty of room for the travelling blues. Yeah, the beer will be expensive but the Norwegian Kroner is pretty low these days so the exchange rate should be in your favor.

Tip: You can get a 0,4 L beer at Calibar for 48 kr (~£4.5) on Thursdays! Also, you'll get two beers for 84 kr (~£8) at Brukbar before 10PM. There's also various places that will have beer for less than £7 on weekdays, just gotta google it before going. Stay away from the tourist places!

Hopefully the game will be broadcast on TV once they have laid the cable outside the ground.

And the fact that the first leg is at Goodison obviously doesn't help either! Yes, I think we should go through, but this ain't quite the "given" I was hoping for at this stage!

I have been through Ruzemberok on the train several times on my jaunts to Eastern Slovakia. The one thing that I always remember about this town, is that there seems to be a lot of industrial incinerators/chimneys around sending plumes of smoke into the air. There are clouds of the stuff.

Everton should do this for all the cup games at Goodison, give as much chance to get new fans on board, which will bode well for the bigger new stadium when we move.

We have been frustrated in the past, selling our youngsters, trying to buy bargain replacements etc. Everton seem to be doing all the right things, bringing in class players, looking after its fan base, trying to do their best for Everton FC and its supporters, we now look like a team who is not run just to keep us on an even keel with our books, our higher-rate loans interest sorted.

A belief that we will be moving to a new ground, a belief that we can now bid for the better players, good times ahead and impossible for any Evertonian to have a negative or false hope; we are back and it feels great.

Although it looks like it will be Brann we play, it maybe risky booking flights to Bergen just yet. Even now, flights to Bergen are looking expensive.

Can anyone explain the groups. Does this suggest the teams in our group for the draw will be involved together after the knockout stages.

At this stage, I think the groups are based on each team's Uefa coefficient coming into the draw, and this is what determines the seeding in the draw in the qualifying rounds – done to keep the 'better' teams apart.

Does that translate into those seeded teams getting into the group stages? That would be a "wait and see"...

Great place then, and great price for a lager. Somehow, it won't be quite the same, but £7 a pint, by now could be £12.
Regardless off where we go, I think we can get through.

The groups are used so that clubs from the same country avoid each other. They have nothing to do with the eventual groups that emerge from at the time of the "Group Stages".

Actually, being seeded in the play-off round is VERY important. If we are not seeded we could end up playing AC Milan just to get into the Europa League group stages. It is possible to calculate whether we could possibly NOT end up being seeded (ie, if all the higher ranked teams get through), so would be great if someone could volunteer to do this. The good news is that, if we have a decent run in the Europa League, we will get a higher coefficient and this will help us in future competitions.

We are currently ranked 72. So I would think that it's pretty likely we will be seeded in the play-off round (assuming we get there) as most of the 32 clubs in the Champions League will be ranked ahead of us and a number of teams above us are not in the Europa League this year (for example Newcastle and Leicester).

I posted somewhere on here but cannot find it. But for the next round there is one team coming in at the fourth round, Steaua Bucharest, which will be seeded above us, so dropping us from 13th to 14th seed. Then if ALL the top seeds in the next round of the Champions League lose then the worst we drop to is 20th and that is still seeded for the 4th round.

The round after that is the group stages.

I know we are Evertonians, but don't worry! Just worry about winning the games.

James (#66) – Newcastle had a couple of seasons in the Europa League to our single outing in the last 5 years. We'll move past both of Leicester and Newcastle if we put together a decent run (and we'll move above Newcastle even if we lose to Brann as one of their seasons drop out of the calculation). We should get to the top 50 if we get to the knock out stages.

Ryanair probably have direct flights but you are need to look for flights to Berlin as that is their destination name.