While Everton have only had to play the one game in this competition, Reading have beaten Colchester and Portsmouth to set up this tie against the Toffees and will be hoping to knock off the Blues in another cup competition.
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Reading will this week welcome the visit of Roberto Martinez’s Everton in the Capital One Cup, with both teams heading into the game on a solid run of form.
“I have been very impressed, not just in training but with the under-21s as well”.
“He has shown an incredible street footballer’s way of playing the game which has probably helped him to be ahead of the problem we expected”. This game represents a great opportunity to get Ramiro Funes Mori and especially Leandro Rodriguez some minutes and see what the players can contribute to the first team.
Last time out at League One Barnsley he started with Phil Jagielka, John Stones, Tom Cleverley, Romelu Lukaku and Steven Naismith only to find his side 2-0 down at half-time.
The introduction of winger Gerard Deulofeu at half-time changed the dynamic and they turned things around to win 5-3 after extra time.
Everton will review Kevin Mirallas’ red card at Swansea which is set to rule him out of the Merseyside derby next month.
Given his outstanding performance in that game and his promising cameos off the bench in the league this year, Deulofeu would be very unlucky to not be allowed the chance to play a big part at the Madejski Stadium on Tuesday evening.
“I don’t think we’ve been fortunate in this completion – we haven’t been blessed with easy ties”, Martinez added.
The truth was it was his first challenge, his first action in the game, and it looks worse than it actually is.
“But we don’t want to lose what we created at Barnsley”.
He continued: “It’s a harsh red card”.
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The forward was dismissed swiftly after appearing as a substitute at the Liberty Stadium and the Everton boss said he would review footage of the incident before deciding whether to appeal.
