EXTRA TIME

It will be tough

April 12, 2024 at 5:57 pm Leave a comment

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.

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