Everton aim for Champions League glory
Everton will not allow their forthcoming FA Cup semi-final to distract them from their bid to reach the Champions League.
Sixth-placed Everton struggled to beat Stoke 3-1 on Saturday and boss David Moyes suggested that complacency had crept into their play.
With European football all but secured - sixth and seventh place in the Barclays Premier League should ensure qualification for the rebranded Europa Trophy next season - Everton's stars could easily allow their minds to switch to their Wembley appearance on April 19.
They will then meet Manchester United at Wembley in the semi-finals, with a final appearance against Arsenal, Hull or Chelsea awaiting the victors on May 30.
But Everton are now just four points behind fourth-placed Arsenal and Aston Villa, in fifth, both on 52 points.
The chance to reach the Champions League is still on, and Everton assistant manager Steve Round said: "We still have that as our goal, we must concentrate on that before we start thinking about the cup semi-final."
He added: "There are no concerns from the players about not getting hurt before the cup semi-final, that is not something I have not seen at all about them.
"We have put the cup on hold now, because they must still concentrate on the league. It is important that we maintain our challenge for a top-four place and reach the Champions League.
"That was our goal at the start of the season and it is still our goal now. We will try our best to get there, we must still concentrate on the league before anything else."
He added: "We know that getting into Europe next season is very close, and sixth or seventh spot should do it. But we would never start thinking that the job is done, despite how well the league table looks.
"It is important that we maintain our good run, if you build runs you keep your form and if you do that you take good form into the semi-finals.
"There is no focus on just the semi-final at the moment. We are nowhere near the finish line yet so we will not start thinking that Europe has been achieved."
