Besic looking forward to home advantage

Posted Monday, August 01, 2016 by Foxsports.com

Everton midfielder Muhamed Besic is relishing the opportunity to play at Goodison Park ahead of their final pre-season tie against Espanyol.

The 23-year-old hardly featured for the Toffees last season, having made 17 appearances in all appearances, mainly as a substitute.

"I'm looking forward to it because it's been a long time since I played at Goodison Park. Hopefully we will get a win," Besic told the club's official website.

"It's the last game of pre-season and so it's a really important one."

Ronald's Koeman's side will feature in Wayne Rooney's testimonial on Wednesday before taking on Quique Flores' men at home on August 6.

Koeman has prepared his team with a number of away pre-season fixtures, namely against FK Jablonec, Barnsley, MK Dons, Dynamo Dresden and Real Betis.

Besic, who netted a penalty in the penalty shoot-out loss to Betis in their last fixture, stressed that the Merseysiders need to be victorious against Espanyol, if they are to build on momentum heading into their opening Premier League fixture against Tottenham on August 13.

"The first game is always the most difficult. We have to get our confidence [in pre-season] so we can win that game," the Bosnia-Herzegovina international added.

"To be fair, there are 37 matches after that but it's always good to win that first game."