Moyesy says: "They were better than us tonight. I can't argue with that - they deserved their victory. We never passed well and made poor decisions with the ball. There wasn't a lot to shout about. It could have been worse, but it's game on. The result keeps it alive at this time, but we will need to play much better in the second leg. We need to score goals and stop giving them opportunities like we did."

Tim Howard says: "We have got it all to do now but football is crazy. When you watch enough of it, you know that anything can happen. We are two goals down but we are certainly not out of it. When they come to us next week, it is not going to be a walk for them. We can definitely turn it around and if we play like everyone knows that we can do, there's no question that we can do it.

From a personal standpoint, I'm not interested in the fact I played well," he added. "It's gone now and we have got to pick ourselves up. Nobody is going to do that for us. I thought we had dodged a few bullets in the second half and we had learned a few lessons but unfortunately we didn't heed the warning shots. They came again and scored two goals. This is an unfamiliar feeling for us because we have played so well recently and you get used to a certain level of performance and we were well below that last night." (07/03/08)

* The Blues Fans singing the YMCA song to the bizarre looking stewards at Fiorentina at the Everton end.

* This is goin to be great! 2-1 to the toffees, Lescott & the Yak to score. C'mon Everton! PC

Fans Match Report By Graeme Holmes

Well after 2 months of almost faultless performances, lots of wins and very few goals conceded, we chose a big night in Europe to turn in one of the worst team performances of the season – but its not over yet, and we need a momentous (and possibly miraculous) performance at Goodison to overturn the deficit

The week started badly when West Ham chose to lie down and die at Analfield, which wasn’t unexpected, but what happened on the pitch in Florence was totally unexpected. I really hope that we didn’t think that we were much better than we are, but it was always going to be a tough test against a very good Italian side, and the priority had to be to keep it tight and try and sneak one on the break

With Mikel not fully fit, and the boss deciding that there was no need for 2 strikers from the start, the team that started on Sunday were selected again. Nev started on the right with Ossie in the centre, but they were switched fairly quickly. That might have been questionable, bearing in mind their left back was their most dangerous attacker in the first half. Hibbert seemed to be getting dragged inside and the left back was given acres of space each time to cause us problems and maybe Neville might have given him a little more support? Vieri had a couple of wayward attempts early on, but it was alarming the amount of space the Italians were given in our half

I was happy to survive to half time at 0-0, which I had hoped would give us a bit of time to regroup, and that was mainly thanks to Tim Howard’s goalkeeping.

The 2nd half wasn’t much better as they decided to go for the kill, and we struggled to get hold of the ball, and even to get it out of our half. Pienaar and Osman were anonymous and there was no scraps for the Yak and Cahill to feed off up front and the ball just kept coming back into our half.

The first change saw Mikel introduced to try and put his foot on the ball, take the pressure off the defence and try and produce something up front at the expense of Ossie. There were a few candidates that could have gone off, but I would have gone for Pienaar, putting ossie in the centre and Neville on the right, but in truth it didn’t really make a great deal of difference.

Having survived a few more of their efforts on goal, it came as no surprise when they finally broke through with 20 minutes remaining with a very well taken goal, although none of the midfielders were there to close the shot down. At that stage, and the way the game was going, it may have been best to go for damage limitation and the introduction of AJ for Hibbert was a little surprising. It wasn’t a League game so we didn’t have to chase the game, and at that stage 1-0 wouldn’t have been a bad result, but with the ball not getting anywhere near our frontmen, we just gave ourselves a man less at the back. Maybe Big Vic for the Yak might have been the better option

They continued to press and scored what could be a priceless 2nd goal when we were again found not marking runners from midfield. Had they scored the 3rd with the shot at the end it would have been well and truly goodnight Vienna (or man city)

All in all, they scored 2 very good goals which had we scored them we would have been talking about them for a while. We just didn’t play at all and didn’t get a shot in all night. Just 2 players with any credit for me – Howard and Jagielka, and it is hard to believe that we could play so badly collectively after the recent good run

So where do we go from here? Well firstly, we need to pick ourselves up for a very important League game on Sunday at the SOL, as 4th place is still very much in our own hands. We then need another ‘Bayern Munich’ type night at Goodison on Wednesday to try and turn this one round and stay in the UEFA Cup – however, the atmosphere and performance against Chelsea just 6 weeks ago in similar circumstances was very disappointing – but we have another chance

Finishing 4th would be great for us and potentially catastrophic for the RS, but the way we have failed to take the next step up this season when faced with teams at a higher or similar level to ourselves gives me concerns – as apart from the blips against Oldham, Newcastle and Reading, our only defeats have been to teams of this category. Would another season in the UEFA Cup be more beneficial than being out of our depth in the CL, based on our results this season?

We still have everything to play for, and the 1 consolation is we can’t possibly be as bad again collectively. We picked ourselves up brilliantly after the home defeats to the RS and Arsenal and lets hope we can do it again. COYB. Graeme Holmes

Here we go again, to see if we can we make it win number eight on the bounce in the UEFA Cup this season. It will be a hard ask as we come up against a side who sit comfortably fourth in Serie A, and last weekend dispatched of Juventus 3-2 in the League. But The Arse has proved this week you can go to Italy and come away with a win when they defeated AC Milan on Tuesday evening.

So onto our game in Florence. Mikky Arteta has travelled with virtually a fully fit squad, Vaughany being left behind with an injury, for the clash in the last sixteen of the UEFA Cup. The big guns will all be out to play for this one, so that tells me that Moyesy will go 4-5-1, with The Yak up ahead of a five man midfield of Mikky (if fit), Tiny, Ossie, Peanuts and Harry Hill. The back four will change slightly with Phil Neville replacing Hibbo at right back, joining Joey, The Jag and Roger in our usual looking defence. The bench though will have some quality with AJ, and Euro specialist Big Vic ready to come on if the goals are needed.

A goal would be nice, and if we can come away with a draw and scoring to boot it will make the return leg at Goodison next Wednesday night all the more stress free.

Roger says: "Every game you play in Europe is tough. But we are going to travel with confidence. We feel good about ourselves. We know that if we are on top of our game, they will certainly have as much to worry about what we can do, as we have them. Nobody knew what to expect when Kharkiv came to Goodison. I think we were a bit naive and underestimated them. That game was a massive turning point for our season. We have learned a lot since then and we are enjoying playing in Europe." Moyesy On Mikel Arteta and Fiorentina says: "Mikel has arrived out here with us but we don’t know if he’s going to be fit or not for the game. It is something that we will have to assess tomorrow. They had a really good result on Sunday (beating Juventus 3-2) so they’ll have a lot of confidence and it’ll be a really hard tie. Our toughest task was our first game against the Ukrainian team (Metalist Kharkiv) but I do think that this will push us hard and this will be a real test." (06/03/08)

Lavo's XI To Start: Howard, Neville, Yobo, Jagielka, Lescott, Arteta, Carsley, Pienaar, Osman, Cahill, Yakubu

Everton from: Tim Howard, Iain Turner, Stefan Wessels, Tony Hibbert, Phil Neville, Joleon Lescott, Joseph Yobo, Phil Jagielka, Leighton Baines, Mikel Arteta, Leon Osman, Lee Carsley, Tim Cahill, Steven Pienaar, Yakubu, Victor Anichebe, Andrew Johnson, Dan Gosling, Jack Rodwell.

IF ANY EVERTON FAN WANTS TO WRITE A REPORT OF ANY OF THIS SEASON'S GAMES, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DO SO. JUST E-MAIL IT TO info@bluekipper.com AND WE WILL PUT IT ON THE SITE.

Technically I never got my bet up on Sunday as Mikky Arteta never started, but on the sly I had a few bob again on The Yak again, and his 6/1 price paid off handsomely for me. So much so, that I sold the log cabin, and now I have proper brickwork back again, and who knows she may even come back to me now. So I fancy the Blues to draw against another unbeaten side in this seasons UEFA Cup in Fiorentina, and you can get on that at 9/4.. If your really adventurous, the one all is 7/1, but its the safe draw for me to keep my run going.

Fiorentina like the Blues are challenging the so called Big Boys of their own League by staying in and around the top of the shop most of the season. Names familiar to the English punter will be those of Christian Vieri, our own Per Kroldrup, and injured Chelski drug taker Adrian Mutu. They are in a rich vein of form this season, beating Juve 3-2 at the weekend, but also they have seen off Lazio, Parma and Napoli to name but a few in Serie A. They finished second in Group C of their UEFA Cup Group, to our old foes Villareall, who have subsequently been seen off by Zenit St. Petersburg. They won both there home Group games in the UEFA Cup, 6-1 to Elfsborg, and 2-1 against Mladá Boleslav, and gained commendable draws away at both Villareal and AEK Athens. Like the Blues they are unbeaten in this season's Tournament, and they dispatched of Rosenborg, 1-0 away and 2-1 at home in the last round. Let Battle commence.

Fiorentina Boss Cesare Prandelli has paid the Blues a fantastic compliment when he said he side will come up against one of the best sides in Europe tommorow. Maybe a bit of kidology, or maybe he has had the Blues watched over the last few weeks, and if that is the case, he is not far wrong in his assumption. Fiorentina Boss Cesare Prandelli says: "I am worried. This is a real team who will make us suffer a lot. We will be against one of the best teams in Europe. I am very curious to see how we fare. This game is going to be very difficult and we are going to have to keep our concentration. They are a team who play good football but are also physical. They play the ball well both on the floor and in the air and are very well organised. But if you go out with the thought of defending, then you lose." (06/03/08)

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