Everton eye positive start

Paris: Under-fire Everton will hope to kickstart their campaign when they play host to Lyon on Thursday looking for a first win in the Europa League group stage.

The Premier League side have just one point from their opening two matches in Group ‘E’, following up a comprehensive 3-0 loss to Atalanta in Italy by drawing 2-2 at home to the Cypriots Apollon Limassol last month.

Ronald Koeman’s men required a late Wayne Rooney penalty to draw at Brighton and Hove Albion on domestic duty at the weekend, and in the last two months their only wins have come against Sunderland in the League Cup and Bournemouth.

“We just need to get results and once we do that, the confidence will come back into the team and things will come a little bit easier for us,” 45 million ($58 million) summer signing Gylfi Sigurdsson told the club’s website.

“And I think if we get a couple of results back-to-back then we’ll hopefully get going. I don’t think we’re too far awa,” he added.

Lyon travel to England having also failed to win in the competition thus far, but Bruno Genesio’s side are fresh from beating Monaco 3-2 last weekend thanks to captain Nabil Fekir’s late free-kick.

Desperate to go all the way to a final that will be played in their own Groupama Stadium, Lyon are without injured former Real Madrid striker Mariano Diaz.

Everton’s Premier League rivals Arsenal have fared rather better in the competition so far, beating both Cologne and BATE Borisov in the Group ‘H’.

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger now takes his team to Serbia to face former European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade, who would leapfrog the Gunners to the top of the section with a win.