Everton's goal is to finish in European places, says Ancelotti

(Reuters) - Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti says their goal this season is to reel in the top sides and win as many points as possible to qualify for Europe next season.

Everton are 12th in the table with 38 points -- six points behind seventh-placed Sheffield United who occupy the final Europa League spot with eight games to go.

"It's important to have a goal to try to reach. Our goal is to compete until the end of the season, to try to climb the table and try to play in Europe next season," Ancelotti told reporters on Tuesday.

"It's difficult, but the teams above are not so far."

Everton became only the third team to take points off Liverpool this season after holding them to a 0-0 draw on Sunday and they travel to bottom side Norwich City on Wednesday.

"We trained well. The (Liverpool) game showed a good condition, we were surprised of this, the team was fantastic from a physical aspect," Ancelotti added.

"I'm sure it will be more difficult in the next game as we don't have much time to rest. We have to be focused to repeat the same performance, but the physical aspect will be more difficult."

Ancelotti also said he was not worried about prosecutors in Madrid indicting the Italian on suspicion of avoiding one million euros ($1.13 million) in taxes due for revenues from image rights while coaching Real Madrid between 2014-15.

"I think it's an ongoing dispute. A lot of players and managers have the same problem with the tax authorities in Spain," he said.

"I leave it to my lawyers in Spain, they are experts so I'm not worried about this and am concentrating on the game tomorrow."

($1 = 0.8825 euros)

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)