(Credit: Manh Tung - Breaking Media, Imago)

Oliver Walton

Sat 9 August 2025 17:58, UK

Everton ended their preparations for the new season with a friendly loss against Serie A side Roma in their first full capacity fixture at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday (9 August).

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The Toffees had not emerged with a win from any of their pre-season fixtures prior to the visit of their Italian opponents, with David Moyes demanding more signings in recent weeks to bolster his squad.

Everton had the best of the chances in the first-half, but summer capture Thierno Barry failed to find the back of the net after being through on goal, while Angelino hit the woodwork the visitors.

(Credit: Hasan Karim, Breaking Media)

The game was stretched open as time ticked on and Mathias Soule soon opened the scoring for Roma in the 70th minute, and it ended 1-0 as the Argentine midfielder then spurned some late chances to improve the visitors’ lead.

As with every pre-season game, certain players put a shift in while some failed to impress, so here are three winners and three losers for the Toffees after their narrow loss.

Dewsbury-Hall made his Toffees debut on Saturday after his move from Chelsea was completed earlier in the week, and he was the main man making things happen for the Toffees throughout his maiden appearance.

The 26-year-old consistently found pockets of space on the new Hill Dickinson pitch, threaded Barry though on goal on numerous occasions, and also delivered some sumptous corners that are bound to be a source of joy for Moyes’ side this season.

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He ended his first game for the club with 96% passing accuracy, four chances created and three recoveries, and is sure to be a starter when they take on Leeds United next week.

Credit: Hasan Karim, Breaking Media

O’Brien has been reinvented as a right-back on Merseyside over the last 12 months, and this was another strong performance despite being up against the quality of Angelino at left-wing-back for Roma.

He never really put a foot wrong all afternoon at the back for the Toffees, and even showed a touch of class with a silky ‘Cruyff turn’ to progress the ball down the right flank just before the interval.

Left-back Aznou recently joined Everton from Bayern Munich as a rotation option for first-choice Vitalii Mykolenko, and he was handed the chance to impress early on as the Ukraine international went off with an injury after just 12 minutes.

Aznou did not particularly standout or play badly, but he will emerge out of this game with hope, despite not wishing ill on his teammate, that Mykolenko may well be ruled out of the season-opener next week and he is given his first start in the Premier League.

Ndiaye was Everton’s best attacker last season as he finished the campaign with nine goals in 33 league games, but he was not quite at his best on this occasion against Roma.

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The Senegalese forward fluffed his lines early in the second-half as he fired wide from close-range, then was nearly at fault for an opener for the visitors as he sold Jordan Pickford short with a back-pass that was pounced upon by an opponent, only for the England stopper to just about pick himself up in time to block a certain goal.

Barry has arrived at Everton from Villarreal this summer with the pressure on to deliver as Moyes’ main number nine, and he will have to do much better in front of goal than he did on Saturday if the boss is to stick by him going forward.

His biggest chance went begging in the 19th minute as he stumbled upon shooting clean through on goal and was smothered by Mile Svilar, and while his all-round game was not awful, there is clearly a lot of room for improvement in a blue shirt.

Mykolenko had barely even settled into the game before he had to leave the pitch, as he went down with a groin injury inside the first quarter of an hour.

He immediately gestured to the bench that he needed to come off, and while Aznou hardly impressed in his absence, an extended spell on the sidelines is the last thing that the Ukrainian needs with the new campaign on the horizon.

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