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South African star Steven Pienaar hopes to make his childhood dream come true by lifting the FA Cup this season.
The midfielder grew up watching the competition from afar and would relish a Wembley date in May.
But the 26-year-old knows the Blues must overcome a potentially difficult obstacle in Saturday's third round tie at League Two side Macclesfield Town.
"Cup football is the shortest route to European football and if we can get past Macclesfield and get a good run going, take the New Year by storm as we finished the last one, then who knows?" Pienaar told evertonTV.
"It would be a dream come true if I got to lift the FA Cup. We'll just have to see how it goes.
"It's a cup game and cup games are full of surprises. I hope we can stay focused and take the game to them. It's not going to be an easy game and to be the favourite is always tough.
"The supporters will be intimidating because they want their team to go through, but we just have to be strong mentally and play our own game."
Having lost at home to Oldham Athletic in the third round last season, Pienaar is confident complacency will not be an issue.
"Last season was a surprise but compliments to Oldham, they played really well against us," he said. "I hope we don't make the same mistake but, as I say, it's cup football and [slip ups] happen.
"I think they were more eager to give, maybe, 120 per cent, and perhaps we took it easy because we thought it would be easy. But at the end of the day we came off losers and I hope that doesn't happen on Saturday."
If selected Pienaar will be back looking for his first goal of the season.
The South African was this week stripped of his recent effort at Tottenham after the FA's dubious goals committee declared it a Vedran Corluka own goal.
"I was a bit disappointed but you just have to forget about it and get on with it," said Pienaar. "Maybe my chance will come again and I'll take it. I think it was a fair decision. It was difficult but they've made a decision and that decision is final. You can't fight it."
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