David Moyes has faced many challenges during a managerial reign at Everton that will enter its sixth year on Saturday, but, by his own admission, few bigger than the one looming at Goodison Park this evening.

Trailing Fiorentina by two goals from the first leg of their Uefa Cup round-of-16 tie, Everton must produce probably their finest performance of an impressive season to have any hope of securing a place in the quarter-finals, the draw for which is to be held in Geneva on Friday.

Having never overhauled a first-leg deficit in European competition, it is a tall order, especially as the Italian side were so superior at the Stadio Artemio Franchi six days ago. But, as they proved by bouncing back from that demoralising defeat in Florence to beat Sunderland on Sunday and keep up the chase for fourth place in the Barclays Premier League, Moyes's men are nothing if not resilient and are bursting with self-belief.

“If we can progress it will rank as one of my best achievements as Everton manager,” Moyes said. “It is a big test, but we've had them before - some we've come through, some we've not - but it's what we want.

“We have scored a lot of goals at Goodison and if we get flowing and moving the way we have done this season, there's no reason why we can't score two goals in this game. I said to the players before the Sunderland game that a lot of people would be looking to see how we did, but they showed great character to win and we'll need that again.”

Although Everton must put the accent on attack, and are expected to start with Andrew Johnson alongside Yakubu Ayegbeni up front, with Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar providing the creativity on the flanks, Moyes has been preaching patience to his players as he attempts to guard against the threat of conceding an away goal.

“If we go gung-ho and give them a few opportunities the tie is going to be even harder for us to win than it already is,” Phil Jagielka, the defender, said. “We can't go 1-0 down because if we do it is going to make the night almost impossible. We do need two goals but we can't run the risk of conceding one just to score an early one.

“Fiorentina are probably going to be as confident as we were coming home from Norway with a 2-0 lead [in the previous round] against Brann, but we've got enough quality in the squad to create chances. It's more for Fiorentina to lose than for us to win and I'm sure the nerves will set in if they concede an early goal.

“If we had lost or drawn against Sunderland people might have written off our season more or less but that result keeps us up there in the chase for fourth and gives you an idea of what the character is like in the squad, so hopefully we can overcome this next hurdle.”

Teams

Everton (possible; 4-4-2): T Howard - P Neville, P Jagielka, J Lescott, L Baines - M Arteta, T Cahill, L Carsley, S Pienaar - A Johnson, Yakubu Ayegbeni.

Fiorentina (possible; 4-3-3): S Frey - T Ujfalusi, A Gamberini, D Dainelli, M Pasqual - Z Kuzmanovic, M Donadel, R Montolivo - M Jorgensen, C Vieri, PD Osvaldo.

Referee: E Braamhaar (Netherlands).

Television: Live on ITV4 from 7pm (kick-off 7.45pm).

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