Moyes believes Everton can still qualify

The Toffees suffered 2-0 defeat to Benfica at Goodison Park on Thursday, following goals from Javier Saviola and Oscar Cardozo.

Everton face AEK Athens in their next match in the Europa League Group I.

“We hope so,” said Moyes when asked if they could still qualify.

“We have tough games coming up and we knew the group was never going to be easy and it will prove that way, I am sure.”

He added: “I think Benfica are a good side and it was a tough game, but it was tighter than the last one.

“We became a little open in the second half, maybe trying to score, and we got done on the counter for the first goal.

“We still had four defenders back though, and the goals weren’t like the goals in Benfica.

“One ricocheted off our player and fell to them, so I didn’t think the goals were beautiful; they were poor defensive moments for us.

“Tonight we did lack quality (going forward). But we knew that before the game, it wasn’t something that surprised us.

“We are trying to talk about the players in the team and give them some confidence and some of them did okay, there were one or two good performances.”