EXTRA TIME

The End of a Long Journey

May 5, 2022 at 9:59 pm Leave a comment

West Ham’s European dream is over as they were beaten by Eintracht Frankfurt in their Europa League semi-final.

Defender Aaron Cresswell and boss David Moyes were both sent off on a heated night in Germany.

Moyes’ side lost their home leg 2-1 but started brightly until Cresswell pulled down Jens Petter Hauge, who would have been through on goal. He was initially shown a yellow card but it was upgraded to a red after a video assistant referee review.

Things went even worse when just seven minutes after the red card for Cresswell, the German side – who enjoyed a marvellously colourful partisan home support – went ahead. The unmarked Rafael Borre hammered home from Ansgar Knauff’s low ball. Defensive errors have again cost West Ham dearly.

In the second half a frustrated Moyes booted the ball at a ball girl and was shown a straight red card.

West Ham had a few chances in the closing stages with Michail Antonio forcing a save from Kevin Trapp and Tomas Soucek heading wide.

Now Eintracht Frankfurt meet Glasgow Rangers (3-1 winners against RB Leipzig) in the Europa League final in Seville.

The Hammers’ wait for a major trophy will tick over into a 43rd year. It also means no place in next season’s Champions Leagu, but West Ham can still qualify for the Europa League or Conference League though.

The 2022 Conference League final will be played by AS Roma vs. Feyenoord Rotterdam. Ex-Hammer Dimitri Payet has not reached the final with Marseille either. His team that was eliminated by Feyenoord. Leicester lost to AS Roma. That means that 3 out of 4 English clubs have gone out in the semi-finals of European competition.

It has been a long beautiful journey. Now it’s come to an end.

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