Wayne Rooney made his second competitive debut for Everton on Thursday night, 15 years after he was introduced to Goodison Park as a teenager.Ronald Koeman's men kicked off their 2017/18 campaign with a Europa League qualifier at home to Slovakian club Ruzomberok.Rooney has impressed in pre-season, scoring an absolute beauty on his return, and was handed a start by the Dutch manager tonight.The 31-year-old former Manchester United captain re-joined his boyhood club as part of the deal which saw Romelu Lukaku go the other way."Something I always wanted to do was play in Europe with Everton," said Rooney."I was a bit disappointed not to do that before but now I'll have a chance. Obviously, I won the trophy last year so I'm hoping as a club we can go far and, you never know, try to win it. It would be even better."The first game back will be an emotional day for me and I'm looking forward to it. Overall, I'm looking forward to the season, hopefully getting back playing regularly and trying to help this club move forward."Rooney received a big cheer from the fans ahead of kick off and looked lively in the first 45 minutes of his Goodison Park return.Many fans, especially Liverpool fans, noticed that a large section of Goodison Park was completely empty.

The real reason for the empty seats

It was indeed a sell-out crowd for Rooney's homecoming but there was only a 30,000 capacity tonight due to refurbishments.

Known as 'The People's Club', Everton had to close part of the ground because work is being done to put lifts in for the disabled supporters.

Everton are expected to be back to their 40,157 capacity when they welcome Stoke City on the opening weekend of the season.

Koeman has strengthened the squad considerably over the last two months with the additions of Rooney, Cuco Martina, Davy Klaassen, Michael Keane, Jordan Pickford, Sandro Ramirez and Henry Onyekuru.

It's expected that £45m rated Swansea star Gylfi Sigurdsson will join the club before the window shuts after it was confirmed that Ross Barkley is headed for the exit door.

It's an exciting time to be an Everton fan.