Frank Lampard has revealed that Everton are planning to play some friendly matches to keep their players sharp ahead of their post-World Cup return to competitive action in late December. The Blues play their final Premier League home game against Leicester City on Saturday evening before back-to-back away matches at Bournemouth (the first of which is a Carabao Cup tie) and then embark on an unprecedented mid-season World Cup break.
Those in Lampard’s squad not heading to Qatar will be part of a travelling party that takes part in a lucrative tournament in Australia later this month as Everton face Scottish champions Celtic on November 20 and Western Sydney Wanderers on November 23 in the Sydney Super Cup. Everton’s first Premier League game back will be at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Boxing Day (with a Carabao Cup return the midweek before if they progress) but Lampard acknowledges there are plans to have some warm-up fixtures before that to try and maintain the fitness of his side.
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He said: “We’re going to Australia for two games and that’s a good thing, it’s great for us as a club to go out there to see our fans and play competitive games, some players need them as they’ve not been playing games so much and there are players returning from injury, so that’s a week. Then the players have a little bit of time off, which again I think this season is good for those ones who are due it and then we’ll train back into the season with a couple of friendlies, probably behind closed doors to give the lads some match practice and then it all starts again at the end of December.”
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