David Moyes keeps quiet to aid Euro victory

Dec 21 2007 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

EVERTON manager David Moyes admitted that he kept the details of AZ’s record-breaking European run from his players ahead of their 3-2 victory in Alkmaar last night.

The visitors overcame two equalisers from their Dutch hosts to triumph thanks to goals from Andrew Johnson, Phil Jagielka and substitute James Vaughan – a result that ensured they finished UEFA Cup Group A with a 100% record and knocked AZ out of the competition.

Before the match, AZ enjoyed the longest unbeaten home record in Europe, stretching back more than 32 matches in 30 years but this run was shattered by an Everton side showing seven changes from their previous Premier League game.

Moyes said: “I heard about their home record yesterday and I didn’t know about it until then but I didn’t tell the players, that’s for sure. I didn’t want them to hear that.

“We’re obviously very pleased to break that record and get a win here.

“Every game is important in football. It’s difficult to put a team out and say ‘it doesn’t matter’ because all the games matter. You can see with the players we had tonight, there were two England players plus several other internationals.”

He added: “I’m really pleased to come here and get a result and to finish the group off in style.

“We’ve done okay. It was hard, they were good and passed the ball well against us but we always looked like we could score a goal.

“I was disappointed that we’d lost the goals, they were pretty cheap but we have to look on the positive side. We started the game well and made other chances as well and probably played better.

“The players were cramping up at the end because it was so cold so it was good that we kept going and got the result.”

Not only did the result ensure a ‘weakened’ Everton side with ‘nothing to play for’ in the group, extended the club’s unbeaten record to 13 matches ahead of Sunday’s trip to Manchester United, it was a great coup for Moyes to get one over on one of Europe’s most-respected and successful coaches in Louis van Gaal.

However, the Scot admits he is already looking forward to locking horns with more of the continent’s biggest names in the New Year. He said: “The group stages of the UEFA Cup have been a great experience for us and have won the four games. We’re actually starting to look quite comfortable at this level and playing quite well.”

Moyes, who gave Bjarni Vidarsson and Jack Rodwell their first team debuts was delighted to be able to give youth a chance again.

Rodwell, 16, became Everton’s youngest ever player in Europe and the manager believes he has plenty of potential.

He said: “He’s a young player, we’ve always said it’s something we do at Everton if we think they’re good enough we put them in the team.

“It’s partly because of the numbers that we’ve got and Jack is another one we think has got a bright future. He’s only just out of school so he’s got a long way to go but we think highly of him.”

The only potential fly in the ointment for Everton is a report from Spain that Valencia are preparing to test their resolve over Mikel Arteta with a big money offer in the New Year.

However, Arteta has repeatedly claimed that he is happy at Everton.

Everton will discover who they will play in the two-legged last 32 and potentially the last 16 of the competition today as the draw is made at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon , Switzerland. The draw is scheduled for 12noon UK time (1pm CET).

As a group winner, Everton will face a third-placed teams from one of the other UEFA Cup groups, either Aberdeen of Scotland, AEK Athens of Greece, Brann of Norway, Zurich of Switzerland, Anderlecht of Belgium or Galatasary of Turkey but not Bolton Wanderers as they cannot face a club from the same country at this stage.