FK Krasnodar vs Everton: Europa League match preview

A look ahead to Thursday’s Europa League fixture at the Kuban Stadium

Leighton Baines (No 3) celebrates his goal with Steven Naismith (GETTY IMAGES)

Everton fans face a 4800 mile round trip to see Roberto Martinez’s side take on mysterious unknowns Krasnodar, who have made an assured start to their first season of European football. Despite an indifferent start in the Premier League, which has left the Toffees in 15th place, they produced a confident performance in their opening European fixture, dispatching Wolfsburg 4-1 at Goodison Park to go top of Group H.

Their Russian opponents are a club in a hurry. They formed in 2008, 130 years later than their opponents, and have only been in the Russian top flight since 2011. However, their meteoric rise has come at a cost – last week, Uefa announced the club is being investigated for breaches of financial fair play.

Oleg Konanov’s side have barely put a foot wrong thus far in their European bow. In the final qualifying round they bounced back from 1-0 deficit to Real Sociedad to shock the Spanish outfit with a 3-0 victory at the Kuban, to finish a six-game qualifying campaign in which Krasnodar scored 20 goals and conceded just two. They drew their first group stage fixture 1-1 at Lille.

KICK-OFF: Thursday, 5.00pm

PAST MEETINGS…

The two sides have never met.

STATS…

Everton won their only previous match against Russian opposition, when Tim Cahill’s goal was enough to beat FC Zenit in December 2007.

Krasnodar have won all three of their European home matches to date, scoring 11 goals and conceding none.

The Russian side had nine different goalscorers during their qualifying campaign.

This is Everton’s first season in the competition since 2009/10, when they reached the last 32.

ODDS…

Krasnodar to win: 2.3

Everton to win: 3.0

Draw: 3.3

TV: Live on ITV4 at 5.00pm, highlights on BT Sport 1 Friday at 7.30am.