Anderlecht 2 v 0 Everton                                    Tue. 6th August 2002. Kick-Off: 8.00pm. 

Attn: 22,730                                          

Everton: Wright, Hibbert, Stubbs, Weir, Naysmith, Alexandersson, Gravesen, Linderoth, Unsworth, Rodrigo, Radzinski.

Subs: Rooney for Rodrigo (56m), Watson for Hibbert (70m), Pembridge for Unsworth (70m), Carsley for Unsworth (75m), Tal for Alexandersson (83m), (McLeod for Radzinski (83m), Simonsen, Gemmill.

Bad day in Brussels. It pissed down all day, trouble with the Anderlecht fans, & we got beat.

First surprise was Super Kev was injured, & wasn't even on the bench. Richard Wright was villain & hero for us. Firstly villain when he spilled a shot, & Nace was adjudged to have handled. Penalty said the ref. No chance said Nace. The ref won. Sheffield Wednesday reject Gilles de Bilde scored.

Before that the only effort we had was by Juli, who did well to get a shot in, but it went straight to the goalie.

Anderlecht looked more in control, & passed it around well. Everton on the other hand were chasing shadows. The Ikea twins in particular were anonymous.

With 15mins of the half left we had a few chances. A Tommy Grav shot, was palmed away, but the incoming Rad could only head over the bar. Stubbsey hit a free kick with power, but straight at the keeper.

Wrighty was the hero when he made a fantastic save, from a close range header, that looked in all the way. .

Half - Time Anderlecht 1, Everton 0.

The second half was worse than the first. Moyesy made 6 substitutions, but nobody made an impression, not even Rooney. Unsworth had a free kick comfortably saved, & that was it. Anderlecht got a second when the Everton defence were rooted to the spot, Zane scored from five yards

Was it the he step up in opposition, or was it just one of those nights. Only time will tell. Still it was only a friendly. No points lost.

Full - Time Anderlecht 2, Everton 0.

Quotes

Moyesy says: “Obviously it was a mistake for the first goal but then he had a wonderful save. If I was giving him any benefit of the doubt then I would say it skipped quickly off the surface and maybe just got away from him on the wet grass. He came in and said he should have done better for it but it still was dubious whether it could have been a penalty. I didn’t think we deserved to lose 2-0. We had some good play in and around the edge of the box but we didn’t quite kill them off in the first half. Then I thought we did very well for a 10-15 minute spell in the second-half of the match.”

  Team News

Everton from: Wright, Simonsen, Hibbert, Watson, Weir, Stubbs, Unsworth, Naysmith, Alexandersson, Carsley, Gemmill, Gravsen, Linderoth, Pembridge, McLeod, Tal, Rooney, Rodrigo, Campbell, Radzinski,

Everton fly out today with a 20 man squad to play their toughest friendly to date. As expected the younger players, Clarke, O'Hanlon, & Southern, are replaced by the arl arses, Stubbs, Weir, & Unsworth. Campbell also returns after being rested. Scott Gemmill comes into the squad for the 1st time.

Joey Yobo, Big Dunc, Pisto, & Chaddy are all left behind to sort out their injuries. Chinese Internationals, Li Tie, & Li wei Feng are to stay with the reserves.

One significant omission is Goalie, Paul Gerrard. Moysey has obviously picked Simmo to be No.2 to Richard Wright. Gerrard could be used to bring another new face in before the season starts. (05/08/02)

RSC Anderlecht from: De Wilde, Crasson, De Boeck, Zewlakow, Deschacht, Hendrikx, Dindane, Vanderhaeghe, Baseggio, Hasi, Kolar, Seol, Zane, Jestrovic, De Bilde, Zitka, Ngalula Mbuyi. Doll,

Anderlecht have had a mixed pre season, having lost the last two games, 2-0 v Sedan, & 4-0 v Willem II. The only player to play in the premiership is Gilles De Bilde, who is back at Anderlecht for a 3rd spell after playing for Sheffield Wednesday, & Aston Villa. Nenad Jestrovic is their danger man, with midfielder Hendikx, & defender Crasson their best players. (05/08/02)