Charlie Nicholas has predicted Everton to record a comfortable win over Apollon Limassol on Thursday night.
The Toffees host the Cypriot top-flight club in the Europa League group stages and will be looking to recover after a poor start in Europe.
Ronald Koeman’s side lost 3-0 in their opening group match against Italian outfit Atalanta and will need a drastic improvement to reach the knockout rounds of the competition.
The Merseyside club go into the match on the back of a 2-1 win over Bournemouth, when substitute Oumar Niasse netted a late brace to earn three points.
However, striker Niasse is unavailable on Thursday night as he was not resisted in the squad for the Europa League at the start of the season.
Nicholas has tipped Everton to win regardless of that fact and has backed Dominic Calvert-Lewin to shine in a 3-0 result at Goodison Park.
“They’re playing catch-up after their loss to Atalanta and they don’t have many goals in them, but I do like the boy Dominic Calvert-Lewin and I fancy him to get on the scoresheet at least once here,” Nicholas wrote in his column for Sky Sports.
OPINION
Everton will be heavy favourites to win in the Europa League, but this match is certainly not a given. Apollon Limassol earned a surprise point against Lyon in their opening group match and could surprise the Premier League side. Koeman is in desperate need of a few positive results and their Europa League campaign could be hanging by a threat if they lose on Thursday. Everton should be trying to go deep in the competition and should field a strong XI to secure victory.