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Everton boss content with Europa League draw

Roberto Martinez is satisfied with how Everton's Europa League draw turned out.

The Toffees were drawn alongside French club Lille, German side Wolfsburg and Russia's Kuban Krasnodar in Group H of Europe's second tier club competition on Friday and Martinez admits it is a group his side is capable of performing well in, especially considering the way the draw worked out.

"The last game is at home and I'm really, really pleased with that," he told the club's official website.

"Starting and finishing at home, I think we can use our crowd and Goodison (Park) to good effect and to our advantage, because it's a really challenging and testing group.

"Wolfsburg have got a really good side, really experienced players and will be a really good test for us. Lille pushed Porto very hard in their Champions League qualifier. And so you're talking about two teams with real Champions League potential.

"Then, Krasnodar have been the surprising team, if you like, beating Real Sociedad over two legs.

"In the first game (a 1-0 Sociedad win), they were well beaten, but the home leg (a 3-0 Krasnodar win) I think shows it's going to be a really difficult environment to cope with over there.

"So, we'll be heavily challenged but we're excited and looking forward to it starting."

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Andrew Slevison
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