West Ham boss David Moyes spoke in the week of the Europa Conference League group stage as a minor inconvenience and midway through opening night it was looking slightly more than that.
Whereas a year ago, the Hammers’ first ever group stage appearance in Uefa competition, in the Europa League, was novel and all part of the fun, the excitement for a second successive season in Europe seems wrapped up in the assumption that the club will go deep into the third-tier Europa Conference League and supply more famous knockout nights in the New Year.
