Both Neill and Heitinga are  ineligible to play in the  Europa League until the New  Year, while Steven Pienaar  continues to join long-term  injury victims Mikel Arteta,  Phil Jagielka, Phil Neville,  Victor Anichebe and James  Vaughan on the sidelines.

Both Neville and Jagielka  nevertheless travelled to  Portugal yesterday to  support the squad, which  includes youngsters Hope  Akpan, James Wallace,  Seamus Coleman and Jose  Baxter.

Tonight’s game is the  first of three in five days  for Everton, with a trip to Bolton Wanderers to come on Sunday followed by Tuesday’s Carling Cup visit to Tottenham Hotspur. 

Moyes said: “We don’t  have any extra players at  the moment and I don’t  have any extra options – at  the moment we are  optioned-out!

“The players we have  will have to cope with the  situation. It will be a case  of putting them out and  letting them cope.

“It is going to take it out  of them. If we had all of  our squad fit we could  perhaps rotate one or two  players in our squad but at  the moment all we are  doing at the present time  is adding to our injury list.  It is disappointing for us.”

Everton currently lead  Group I with two wins  from two, three points  ahead of tonight’s  opponents and AEK  Athens, who entertain  BATE this evening.

Benfica, who lost to  AEK in their last Europa  League outing, stand  second in the Portuguese  league.  And Moyes admits a  draw would be a good  return for his patched-up  side this evening.

“This is a great game for  us and obviously I would  have liked to be here with  a much stronger squad,  especially as we have so  much support following us  here,” he said.

“We go into all games  trying to win, but I’d be  happy to take a point at  Benfica.

“I don’t have a points  target to see how we could  qualify. But we are  fortunate that we have two  good results under our  belt which puts us into a  good position.”

TONIGHT’S officials  are from Russia, with  Nikolay Ivanov the  referee.