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Everton take on Benfica without the services of Louis Saha.
The striker is unable to feature due to an ongoing calf problem which he initially suffered in the Carling Cup match at Tottenham Hotspur last week.
His absence means a start for Dan Gosling, who comes into midfield. Otherwise, the only other two changes from Saturday's 1-1 draw with Aston Villa are the enforced and expected ones of Lucas Neill and John Heitinga who are ineligible for European competition.
This means that Tony Hibbert - in for Neill - goes within one appearance of the European record at Everton, behind Colin Harvey and Brian Labone.
Tim Cahill captains the side for the fifth successive match and makes his 17th European start for the club.
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Marouane Fellaini replaces the ineligible Heitinga as David Moyes selects a 4-5-1 formation which is spearheaded by Yakubu.
Tim Howard starts in goal, with Hibbert, Leighton Baines, Joseph Yobo and Sylvain Distin in defence. Cahill and Fellaini are joined by Gosling, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov - whose red card on Saturday does not count for continental matches - and Jack Rodwell.
The bench is largely inexperienced but does include Brazilian striker Jo.
Benfica line up with two-goal forwards from a fortnight ago, Javier Saviola and Oscar Cardozo, in attack but Pablo Aimar starts on the bench.
eric mcnamara
gotta win this lads
Agree with eric?
Thursday 5th Nov 2009 19:30