The Toffees take on Cypriot outfit Apollon Limassol at Goodison Park as they look to kick start their European campaign.

Everton’s best chance of qualification for the Champions League could be by winning the tournament after the Toffees boss recently claimed they have to be “realistic” about finishing in the Premier League’s top four.

But they started their Europa League Group E campaign with a disastrous 3-0 defeat by Serie A side Atalanta two weeks ago in Italy.

Koeman said: “To win this competition? It’s a long way.

“Of course you play football and you like to win every game and you have ambition, maybe more ambition than that can be realistic.

“But first of all we need to take the next step and the next step is to win this game.

“We have to be first or second in the group in December to go to the next round. That’s the most important. Then we will see.

“Everyone is taking this competition more serious than it was five or six years ago.

“There will also be the teams who drop out of the Champions League in the Europa League, it means that also that this competition is a really strong one.

“It’s not necessary now to think further than this game because if we don’t win this game it’s already really dangerous till the end of the group stage.”

Koeman’s sense of danger is so strong that he will field as strong a team as possible tonight instead of favouring Sunday’s league clash with Burnley.

He said: “We have a lot of different competitions but this is not the moment for change.

“We had a bad result against Atalanta away and we want to go on in Europe.

“The team which will start will be the strongest one of who is available.

“We need to react because the face we showed and final result we got in Italy was not the Everton we like. That revenge feeling means we have to show it now.”

James McCarthy will return to training tomorrow but Koeman has warned the midfielder not to risk his fitness after being called up by Republic of Ireland for their World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Wales.

Everton have also opened new contract talks with midfielder Idrissa Gueye just over 12 months into his four-year deal.

EVERTON (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Martina, Holgate, Williams, Baines; Gueye, Schneiderlin; Rooney, Sigurdsson, Vlasic; Sandro.APOLLON LIMASSOL (4-2-3-1): Vale; Pedro, Hector, Roberge, Jander; Alef, Sachetti; Jakolis, Silva, Schembri; Maglica.REFEREE: Tamas Bognar (Hungary)TV: 8.05pm, BT Sport 2.