Blues To Travel To Moscow

An Everton U-21 side featuring the likes of Jose Baxter, Joao Silva and Apostolos Vellios will prepare for the new season by participating in the VTB Lev Yashin Cup alongside SC Freiburg of Germany, OFK Beograd of Serbia and hosts Dynamo Moscow.

The squad, managed by Alan Stubbs and Andy Holden, will travel to the Russian Capital for the tournament, which takes place on the weekend of the 16th and 17th July. It will be held in honour of the former Soviet and Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper Lev Yashin, considered by many to be the greatest goalkeeper of all time.

Stubbs told evertonfc.com: “The football should be tough. It is worth remembering it will be our first competitive action of pre-season and we are up against players who are well into their seasons so, from a fitness point of view, we are going to be up against it.

“We’ll go there and enjoy it, there will be an edge to the football because of who we are playing and hopefully with it being a week into pre-season the lads will be desperate to get the ball out and play some games.”

“We are up against a top Russian team, a top-flight side from Germany and a top Serbian team. German sides are always of a certain quality, Serbia produce technically gifted players and you Dynamo are going to be good.

“It will be a challenge but I am quite optimistic really. I think we have got a good bunch of lads with a fair bit of quality and I am hopeful about both this trip and what the season may bring.”

“It is great to be involved in something like this and I think it shows the Club’s stature,” he added. “I think 10 years ago there would have been other clubs getting asked to go, so it is a feather in our cap that we have been asked to play against sides of this quality.”