Everton-Villarreal GAMETHREAD

The teams are in!!  Would have been interesting if Barbosa had started in goal for us like he did in that CL playoff game, but he's not....

EVERTON: Howard, Coleman, Baines, Jagielka, Stones, McCarthy, Barry, Mirallas, Osman, Cleverley, Kone.

Subs: Robles, Oviedo, Naismith, Barkley, Browning, McAleny, Ledson, Galloway, Grant, Walsh, Rooney, Ferguson.

VILLARREAL: Areola; Mario, Pantic, V.Ruiz, J.Costa; Bruno, Pina, Nahuel, Castillejo; Baptistao and Gerard

Subs: Jokic, Alejo, Trigueros, Acosta, Espinosa, Aleix, Iniguez, Rukavina, Pereira, Bailly, Barbosa.

Transfer updates:  Various sources reporting Soldado to Villarreal for roughly €14m (that would not be our record signing; Nilmar was €16.4m), deal to be pushed through early next week;  Bukambu on way to Spain to sign for us apparently; optimism on Cheryshev but no real news.

Gerard Moreno has reached agreement with Espanyol on a five-year deal, according to a report this morning, expectations are deal will be announced on August 5; no word on if a player swap is included or (as now seems more likely) a higher percentage sell-on clause.  So today is probably his last match in yellow.

And (not transfer news) Jonathan dos Santos is expected to return to training August 10.

This is not quite the 10th anniversary of the first leg between these two in the CL playoff--it was played August 9, 2005.  Goodison is where it all began for us with a 2-1 win;  the goalscorers were, of all people, Figueroa and Josico for us, Beattie for them.

How many of you became Yellow Submarine fans as a result of this run?  It put Villarreal on the map; that and the play of Marcos Senna in the next Euros did it for me....

How to watch:  Official Villarreal site works if you're in Spain, not sure anywhere else for this one; official Everton site has a stream too, but you have to sign up to Everton TV and pay for it.  So, look for streams, and if you find a good one, please post it.  Javi Mata will be doing the match for Radio Vila-real I am sure.