Archive for April, 2024
West Ham 1-0 up at HT
West Ham’s second goal, the equaliser after Liverpool had gone up 2-1 in the second half, has been assisted by Jarrod Bowen and scored by Michail Antonio:
Happy birthday and farewell to David Moyes!
It’s West Ham manager David Moyes‘s 61st birthday today. In an article on the KUMB website Paul Walker writes that the foreseeable conclusion of the Scot’s tenure is “a sad and disrespectful end”.
With only four wins in 2024 and almost certainly losing out on qualifying for Europe it is almost inevitable that West Ham is looking for a fresh start and hence will not renew the manager‘s contract. But parting ways with the most successful Hammers manager since John Lyall, and that is David Moyes without any doubt, should be done in a respectful and dignified way.
Let’s hope the players will recover from the Europa League exit and from the 2-5 drubbing by Crystal Palace last weekend, which meant that West Ham have virtually gone out of Europe twice within the space of one week. I very much hope that the players who have been on an incredible and massive journey with their manager since the beginning of 2020, for four and a half years now, are up for the last games of the season and won’t let the season just peter out. The manager does deserve that!
I will bid my personal farewell to David Moyes by visiting the game against Chelsea away.
Matches left in the PL for West Ham: Liverpool (H), Chelsea (A), Luton (H), Manchester City (A).
Calls for end of Moyes‘s tenure…
… have become so numerous in comments of West Ham fans that it would be a greater miracle if David Moyes was still manager of the club by the end of the season than it was when the Scot succeeded in avoiding relegation twice in 2019/20 and 2017/18.
West Ham failed to produce a miraculous turnaround in the EL semifinal against Leverkusen, and lost twice in the PL, last weekend 2-5 at Glasner’s Crystal Palace, and it now seems almost certain the Hammers will find themselves outside the European places in the Premier League by the end of this campaign.
Hamburg Hammer writes on WHTID that for a manager taking such great pride in solid defensive football, Moyes has now been found out. And he adds: “I don’t see him coming up with a masterplan to turn things around again.”
WHTID columnist Kirk Blows therefore thinks that now is the perfect time to respectfully thank Moyes for his achievements over the past four years and move on.
He argues that the squad needs a huge overhaul – in fact a rebuild given the club has the second-oldest average starting XI in the top flight – and the team is crying out for fresh ideas and new impetus.
That’s perfectly right, and so is another writer for WHTID, Gary Hyams, who lists eight reasons why West Ham should part company with the Scot and concludes that “30 per cent possession is a mad way to play football. This is not the West Ham way.”
Rightly so. Moyes has won West Ham the first trophy in 43 years, but now it’s time to say “thanks, Mr. Moyes, for everything, it has been a massive delight to achieve three consecutive seasons in Europe and win silverware in Prague.” But given the circumstances it is time to move on.
Well, things have got so desperate lately that it could happen that on my next trip to London I will not want to watch West Ham…
In the meantime rumour has it that West Ham could be interested in appointing Ruben Amorim (Sporting Lissabon) as their new manager next season. The Portuguese had a meeting with West Ham chairman David Sullivan.
FA Cup Final ManC v ManU
Manchester United thought they were cruising to a repeat of last season’s final with neighbours Manchester City when they led Coventry City 3-0, but then United imploded and the Championship club took full advantage, and came back to 3-3, only to lose, due to VAR, in the penalty shootout.
Coventry City came back from 3-0 down, forced extra-time, had the better chances in extra-time and thought they’d won it through Victor Torp who seemed to have scored in the very last minute of extra time.
But for the narrowest of offsides, when Wright, who crossed the ball for Torp, was offside by about two cms, VAR disallowed the goal.
Manchester United would have been dumped out in spectacular fashion, but it wasn’t to be.
When Hojlund scored that final penalty for Manchester United, few, if any, United players really celebrated.
It’s not hard to see why. Coventry humiliated them from the 71st minute and should have won!
The second club in the final is Manchester City that won 1-0 v. Chelsea on Saturday courtesy to a late Bernardo Silva goal.
Semi finals 🏆
Die Anzahl der englischen Klubs in den Europacup-Bewerben ist drastisch gesunken, allein der aktuelle Vierte der Premier League, Aston Villa, Lieblingsklub meines Freundes Alfred und von Prinz William, steht im Semlfinale des erst vor wenigen Jahren neu geschaffenen dritten Bewerbs, der Conference League.
Immerhin könnten dort zwei Mal hintereinander unsere Lieblingsfarben „claret and blue“ den Pokal stemmen, falls die Villans nun Olympiakos und dann den Sieger aus der Paarung von Vorjahresfinalist AC Florenz und Brügge besiegen sollten.
Überraschend Deutschland und, wie im Vorjahr, Italien stellen drei Teilnehmer.
▶️ GER 3, ITA 3, FRA 2, ESP 1, GRE 1, BEL 1, ENG 1
Champions League: Bayern – Real Madrid; Dortmund – PSG
Europa League: Roma – Leverkusen; Marseille – Atalanta
Conference League: Aston Villa – Olympiacos; Fiorentina – Club Brügge
Da war‘s nur noch einer 🏴
Liverpool and West Ham both go out of Europa League, now Aston Villa only English club in European semifinals.
- FT: Atalanta 0-1 Liverpool (agg: 3-1) – Reds out after early Salah penalty had given them hope of comeback
- FT: West Ham 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen (agg: 1-3) – Hammers were very strong in first half, Antonio scored 1-0 in the 13th minute with a beautiful header (assist: Jarrod Bowen), West Ham really gave it their best shout and made their fans proud, but finally they were out when Frimpong’s late equaliser kept German side’s unbeaten run of (so far) 44 games this season going.
- Aston Villa beat Lille on penalties to reach Europa Conference League semi-finals and are the last English club left standing in Europe. World Cup winning keeper Martinez saved two penalties in shootout to clinch victory – match report here
Da waren‘s nur noch… 🇬🇧
In den Viertelfinali der drei Europacup-Bewerbe stehen bzw. standen diesmal fünf Klubs aus der englischen Premier League – mehr als aus jedem anderen Land: ManCity und Arsenal in der Champions League, Liverpool und West Ham in der Europa League und Aston Villa in der Conference League.
▶️ ENG 5, ITA 4, FRA 3, GER 3, ESP 3, GRE 2, POR 1, CZE 1, BEL 1, TUR 1
In der vorigen Saison gab es sogar zwei Europacup-Sieger aus England: ManCity gewann die Champions League (1:0 gegen Inter Mailand) und die Hammers triumphierten in Prag in der Conference League mit dem 2:1-Sieg über Fiorentina. Die Europa League gewann Sevilla gegen AS Roma im Elfmeterschießen, womit Italien 2022/23 drei Klubs in die Finalspiele gebracht, aber keinen einzigen Pokal geholt hat.
Heuer wird die stolze Premier League schon in den zwölf Semifinalspielen aller Voraussicht nach nur mehr einen oder – mit Glück – zwei Vertreter stellen: Gestern Abend mussten sich sowohl Arsenal (0:1 in München) als auch – überraschend – Manchester City (1:1 und Niederlage im penalty-shootout gegen Real Madrid) aus der Champions League verabschieden. Und heute schauen die Chancen für die drei anderen Klubs auch nicht berauschend aus:
West Ham und Liverpool in der Europa League stehen alles andere als gut da, denn die Hammers müssen ein 0:2 gegen das heuer überragende, mittlerweile als deutscher Meister feststehende Bayer 04 Leverkusen aufholen. Und Liverpool verlor das Heimspiel gegen Atalanta vor einer Woche 0:3, nach der Papierform schaut das nicht nach einem Aufstieg gegen den Sechsten in der Serie A aus.
Aston Villa verteidigt in der Conference League einen knappen 2:1-Heimsieg auswärts gegen OSC Lille, den Vierten der französischen Ligue 1.
Mal sehen, wie viele englische Klubs heute, am Ende der Europacup-Nacht mit acht Spielen und drei noch verbliebenen Premier League-Vereinen, in den schon ausgelosten Semifinalspielen noch dabei sein werden. In der Königsklasse ist es jedenfalls nach dem Ausscheiden von Manchester City und Arsenal leider keiner mehr.
Declan Rice‘s Sehnsucht nach weiteren Titeln, die er als Grund für den Wechsel zu Arsenal nach dem Sieg mit West Ham United in der Conference League genannt hatte, wird sich zumindest im Europacup nicht erfüllen. Und auch in der Premier League hat Arsenal mit einer 0:2-Heimniederlage gegen Aston Villa am letzten Wochenende den ersten Platz in der Tabelle wieder verloren.
Kann gut sein, dass es gerade die “Villans“ sind, die nach jahrelanger Europacup-Abstinenz als einziger englischer Klub ins Halbfinale kommen. Prinz Williams Lieblingsklub spielt heuer eine ausgezeichnete Saison und liegt auch in der Premier League auf dem vierten Platz, sodass man sogar für die Champions League in der nächsten Saison qualifiziert wäre. Diese guten Nachrichten kann der Prinz angesichts der Krebserkrankungen seiner Frau und seines Vaters durchaus gebrauchen…
Wrexham promoted
The much-anticipated third season of the Disney documentary ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ begins next month, and it is going to have a happy ending. Two games before the end of the League Two season, Wrexham and Stockport got promoted to League One with wins, Wrexham thumping Forest Green Rovers 6-0 at their Racecourse Ground.
Wrexham AFC: Okonkwo, Cleworth, O’Connell, O’Connor, Barnett (Bolton 82’), Cannon (J. Davies 72’), Evans, Lee, McClean, Mullin (C) (Marriott 82’), Palmer (Fletcher 72’).
Goals: E. Lee 17′, P. Mullin 23′, 44′, R. Inniss 33′ (ET), R. Barnett 63′, J. Marriott 84’
👉🏻 In this article BBC is looking back on six games that shaped Wrexham’s promotion season, the second one within two years!
It will be tough
West Ham parked the bus in Leverkusens BayArena on Thursday night, and it almost worked. Until the 83rd minute of the first leg of this Europa League quarter final, Bayer Leverkusen was held to a 0-0 draw by the brave Hammers. Xabi Alonso’s hosts dominated possession but were largely frustrated by a superbly organised Hammers defence.
But then two goals scored by substitutes Hofmann and Boniface in the 83rd and 91st minute have given the future German champions of 2023/24 a two goal advantage. That makes David Moyes’ and his men’s task to reach the semifinal quite difficult. It will be even more difficult to overcome Leverkusen as Lucas Paquetá and Emerson will be suspended in the second leg due to having received yellow cards in Thursday’s game.
However, a stubborn David Moyes insists that West Ham “are still in the tie”.
“We have half a chance in the second leg,” Moyes told TNT Sports.
“It’s going to take some performance because they’re a really good team. You never know what’s going to happen.
“Let’s try to get one and then see if we can get two. We’ll pick ourselves up for next week and hopefully get the crowd behind us.”
The visitors showed great discipline to limit Leverkusen’s chances for much of the game while also offering a threat on the counter through the pace and power of Michail Antonio.
Antonio created arguably the best opportunity of the first half as he broke down the left and squared for Mohammed Kudus, but the Ghana winger’s shot was straight at Leverkusen goalkeeper Matej Kovar.
It will be even more difficult to reach the semifinal of the Europa League for Liverpool: they lost 0-3 at home against Italian side Atalanta. Former West Ham forward Scamacca scored twice for the visitors.
In a disappointing European night for English clubs only Aston Villa narrowly won their Conference League home tie against Lyon (2-1)
On Tuesday Arsenal and Manchester City were held to draws in the Champions League by Bayern Munich (2-2) and Real Madrid (3-3) in their respective, highly entertaining quarter final first legs.
EXTRA TIME 
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