EXTRA TIME

West Ham best, Austria worst team of ECL

November 6, 2022 at 12:22 am 2 comments

Six wins out of their six group games – this was West Ham‘s massive Europa Conference League record. The Hammers were the first club to do this in the Conference League, Europe’s third cup competition which was started last season.

Much contrary to West Ham’s record is the one of Austria Wien, the only Austrian club who qualified for this European competition: 6 games, no win, only two points. FC Vaduz, the team that eliminated Rapid Wien, and three other clubs have also got only two draws from the group stage (Shamrock Rovers from Dublin, FS Riga and Steaua Bucharest), but Austria’s goal difference of 2:15 makes the Violets the worst of the 32 teams that qualified for the ECL group stage.

What Austria Vienna gained from their European adventure is an entry fee of EUR 2.94 mio for reaching the group stage, plus twice EUR 166,000 for the home draws against Be’er Sheva (0:0) and Posen (1:1).

Next Monday the draw for the play-offs between the runners-up of the ECL groups and the third ranked teams of the Europa League will be made. One of the winners of these games will play West Ham on the 9th and 16th of March in the round of the best sixteen teams.

Three games ahead

It’s only a week before the English domestic season pauses until Boxing Day for the FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar. Having secured top spot and progression to the UEFA Europa Conference League round of 16, now a top half placing in the Premier League and a Carabao Cup fourth round berth are up for grabs over the next three games within the seven days.

In this final week before the break, West Ham play three times in front of their home crowd at the London Stadium. The Hammers host Crystal Palace on Sunday, Blackburn Rovers in the League Cup on Wednesday and conclude this week with Leicester at home on Saturday.

The World Cup will start on 20 November with Qatar vs Ecuador. England will play Iran in their first game of group B on the 21st.

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