Gareth Barry : winning Europa League is primary objective

Gareth Barry says winning the Europa League is now Everton's primary objective this season.

Roberto Martinez's men hold a commanding 4-1 lead going into Thursday's last-32 second leg against BSC Young Boys and are heavy favourites to advance a step closer to May's final in Warsaw.

For the first time ever, winning the competition this season earns automatic qualification for the Champions League - a dangling carrot Barry believes is driving the Club's impressive European form.

"Realistically, the best hope we've got of getting back into Europe now is to go on and win this competition," said the 34-year-old. "That was always the target from the outset - to try to win this.

"Win it and you get into the Champions League this season, so that's a massive target for us.

"At the same time, we still want to go back into the league and try to finish really strong there. We want to do as well as possible in both."

Everton cruised through to the knockout stages of the Europa League by topping Group H ahead of Wolfsburg, Lille and FC Krasnodar.

A narrow 1-0 reverse in a dead-rubber against the latter stands as the only defeat of an impressive continental campaign to date and Barry added: "I think we've already showed that we're more than capable of going all the way.

"We've proved that we can compete against the best in Europe and win games, and even against the top English teams, we know on our day we can beat anybody. There's no reason why we can't go all the way in this."

Barry is set to return to the fold after missing last weekend's 2-2 draw with Leicester City through suspension.

And the former Aston Villa and Manchester City star said: "We've got three games coming up in quick succession, so hopefully I can look back and say it [the rest] did me good.

"But it's always the case when you've missed a game that you want to get back out there, so I'm looking forward to the game.

"We've got to show them respect but we need to get the job done and score a few goals for our fans."