FC Sion 0-0 Everton: Toffees’ pre-season continues with hard-working draw in Switzerland

Everton’s pre-season continued with a goalless draw against FC Sion in Switzerland.

The Toffees had the better of possession and the chances but couldn’t find a way through.

Marco Silva named a mixed bag of a team featuring first-teamers, youngsters and those likely to be sold. One of the latter, Kevin Mirallas, was asked to fill in at right-back, perhaps highlighting how early we are in pre-season.

Nathan Broadhead looked reasonably bright on the right wing early on, putting in a few dangerous crosses towards Oumar Niasse.

Michael Keane had the ball in the net with a fine header from Leighton Baines’ free-kick but it was disallowed for offside.

Joe Williams was then booked for a crunching challenge before limping off to be replaced by Seamus Coleman, freeing Mirallas to push back further forward.

The half-time break saw a slew of substitutions with Jordan Pickford, Lewis Gibson, Bernard, James McCarthy, Lucas Digne and Gylfi Sigurdsson coming on. Fraser Hornby soon followed at the start of the second half.

Some decent play from Broadhead teed up Bernard in the centre of the penalty area but his low shot was well saved by the Sion goalkeeper.

Sigurdsson then went even closer when his left-footed effort from just outside the area smacked off the crossbar with the goalkeeper unmoved. Minutes later a right-footed effort from the Iceland international clipped off the outside of the post.

Everton had a decent penalty shout turned down with two minutes left when Broadhead’s cross appeared to be blocked by a defender’s arm but the referee said no.

All in all, it was a typical early pre-season game where fitness is more important than results. Everton’s goal rarely looked threatened and they were unlucky on more than one occasion at the other end.

Next up for the Toffees is Ligue 1 side Monaco at the same venue on Wednesday.