Ronald Koeman is pleased with Everton’s narrow Europa League win over Ruzemberok.
In a game lacking in quality at Goodison Park, a new-look Blues side featuring no fewer than four summer signings failed to threaten the Slovakian minnows.
Leighton Baines’ second-half strike handed the hosts a slender advantage ahead of their return leg at the Stadion pod Cebratom in seven days’ time.
But Koeman maintains that the result remains is a positive one, especially considering it comes just three weeks into his team’s pre-season schedule.
He said: “I expected this game because we analysed our opponents and we knew they would drop back and we would get a lot of ball possession.
“There was no space and you needed to be at your best to create open chances. We played some good football in the first half and made two or three good chances.
“Dominic Calvert-Lewin started on the right side because the left back is not really defender and there was space on his back.
“In three clips, which I showed the players at half time, when we won the ball there was a lot of space in the transition to attack and totally free Dominic and we didn’t pass the ball.
“The second half was a little bit better from the start and finally we created some chances.
“1-0 is not a bad result, maybe everybody expected a bigger result at home but everybody needs to know that it’s the third week of pre-season and they cannot expect 100%.
“They worked very hard, we had a lot of possession, we played aggressive and had good chances to score the second goal and get the perfect result.
“But in European football 1-0 with a clean sheet is a good result.”