West Ham United will be playing in a European sem-final for a second consecutive season after cruising past Gent in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night.
A 4-1 victory for West Ham in the second leg of their quarter-final tie, to seal a 5-2 aggregate victory came despite going behind in the first half via Hugo Cuypers’ goal. Michail Antonio’s header before the interval had the tie level at half-time, before three goals in eight minutes from Lucas Paqueta, Declan Rice and Antonio confirmed victory.
As West Ham booked their place in next month’s semi-finals against Dutch side Gent, here are five of the major talking points from the London Stadium.
READ MORE: Every word David Moyes said on West Ham’s Gent win, Declan Rice, Lucas Paqueta and Europe
The European tour continues
West Ham went into their second leg full of momentum, unbeaten in three games and fresh off coming from 2-0 down to earn a brilliant point against Premier League leaders Arsenal.
Although it was not a sold out London Stadium, it was significantly the biggest home crowd for a game so far this season in the Europa Conference League, with West Ham getting an atmosphere brewing that was deserving of a big European night, added more by the passionate Belgian contingent in the away end supporting Gent.
It took just 20 seconds for Rice to set the tone with one big tackle. The fans were quickly on side the atmosphere grew and it never really fell from that point, even when Cuypers tried to spoil the party in east London when scoring a surprise opener on 26 minutes.
West Ham had dominated the opening quarter but had failed to create any real chances, and it was Gent who pounced on a rarely stray Lucas Paqueta cross. Gift Orban’s run and cross led to poorly hit Matisse Samoise shot which landed perfectly for Cuypers to tap in.
The Hammers’ fans did not let their players get too bogged down by it and within 11 minutes, West Ham were level.
Early on, the final ball, largely by Said Benrahma’s inaccurate and ineffective crosses, were wasting chances for the Hammers, but a free-kick, won by a handball off a Vladimir Coufal cross, gave West Ham their break. Jarrod Bowen’s delivery found the head of Antonio, who got across his marker to thump in his tenth goal of the season.
West Ham started the second half in much of the same way they ended the first, on top, with chances and giving Gent far too much to think about than they would have liked.
Early on, they should have gone 2-1 up when a brilliant passing move led to Tomas Soucek smashing an effort at the back post off the bar at the end of Bowen’s cross, but West Ham did not have too much time to rue the missed chance.
In a serious case of Deja vu, a Coufal cross was handled by the flailing Jospeh Okumu, with his hand teeing up Antonio, whose shot crashed off the post. Once the ball went out, a VAR check later led to a walk to the pitchside monitor for Israeli referee Orel Grinfeeld, who then gave a spot-kick.
Despite scoring four penalties in the Premier League, including one as recently on Sunday, there was a surprise that Brazilian midfielder Paqueta claimed the ball to take, despite Benrahma being the planned taker. Paqueta, with a shimmy and stutter, made his attempted redemption count, going enough to squirm his spot kick past Davy Roef.
Two minutes after Paqueta’s penalty, he and midfield comrade Rice sealed the game beyond doubt. As Rice caught Kamil Piatkowski out of possession, he carried the ball and passed to Paqueta, who briefly carried it before Rice burst through on a 60 yard gallop with the ball from his own half to Gent’s penalty box to score a superb goal, one that trumped his two other stunners from earlier this season. A captain’s goal, one of the best the London Stadium ever has, or ever will see, and one fitting a European quarter-final masterclass.
Not satisfied with a 3-1 lead, six minutes after Rice’s wondergoal, Antonio doubled his tally for the night to move level on European goals in West Ham’s history with Bowen. As Nayef Aguerd won the ball and fizzed a pass to Paqueta, the Brazilian turned and played through Antonio, who raced down the side, cut in from the left and hit a strike hard enough that Roef could only palm into his own net.
West Ham really could have had more than four, missed chances before the goals that did count and Bowen seeing a goal ruled out when making it 5-1 for a handball in the build-up, but it showed how rampant and ruthless West Ham were, and have been for much of their exploits in Europe this season.
They just have to get past Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in next month’s semi-finals to set up a final against either Fiorentina or Nice in June in Prague and although the Premier League campaign has been far from impressive, West Ham’s chances of making this a season to remember are growing ever closer.
Declan Rice proves Graeme Souness wrong
In the build-up to a 1-1 draw with Chelsea in February, former Liverpool player and manager Graeme Souness wrote a column in the Daily Mail, explaining why in his mind, Hammers captain Rice will likely become a centre-back later in his career and that he can only defence and does not create or score enough goals to be classed as a top midfielder.
In the 58th minute of the win over Gent, Rice proved he can do all three three in a matter of seconds, giving very little credibility to that now infamous Souness column.
Rice showed his defensive qualities to pick off Pitakowski deep in his own half, then was quick to regain possession again after Paqueta, narrowly ahead of him, lost his footing, carrying the ball in possession over half the length of the pitch before converting with a striker’s finish on his weaker left foot, 11 seconds after winning the initial challenge just outside his own penalty area, with his quick feet bamboozling Gent’s Okumu prior to shooting past Roef.
Rice has scored three goals this season and all three should be in contention for West Ham’s Goal of the Season award, but this effort, showing multiple sides of his game, made his long-range pearlers against Southampton and Nottingham Forest from earlier this season look bang average.
It was a captain’s goal, deservedly fitting the occasion to set up a second straight European semi-final, with Rice aiming to be only the third Hammers captain after Bobby Moore and Billy Bonds to lift a major trophy at the end of the season.
Lucas Paqueta’s unplanned decision
West Ham have had five different penalty takers this season, initially struggling to find someone they could rely on from 12 yards in the opening months of the campaign.
In the second half of this season, West Ham settled on Said Benrahma from 12 yards and rightly so, scoring four of his five Premier League goals this season from the spot and 11 out of 11 in his professional career.
When Okumu handled Coufal’s early second half cross, once referee Grinfeeld eventually gave the decision, it seemed a formality that Benrahma would take the penalty. However, after giving the ball away to start the move for Cuypers’ opener, Paqueta was keen to avenge himself and took the ball when the decision was given. Manager David Moyes’ head in his hands second before he took it showed that this decision was certainly not preempted.
But just like he did against Leeds United in January to open his West Ham scoring account, with a shimmy and stutter run-up, Paqueta did enough to squeeze his effort into the top corner, too much for Roef to reach, despite guessing the wrong way.
Having suffered European quarter-final heartache last season with Olympique Lyonnais at the hands of his now current club West Ham, Paqueta certainly made up for his first half error, doing even more so when playing roles in goals three and four, with his penalty setting the tone for a second half spell of supremeness.
Home goals flooding in
West Ham had not scored four in a match this season less than two months ago, but have now reached a home quadruple three times in their last seven home matches.
Goals have been a big issue for much of the season, but against Forest, AEK Larnaca and now Gent, West Ham have shown a real ability to become ruthless once they get going in matches.
In their last seven home matches, West Ham have scored 17 goals, hitting four in a game three times since then. In their first 16 home games of the campaign, they scored just 23, nine of which came in four European matches.
Making the London Stadium a fortress and a place to rediscover goals has certainly helped West Ham improve in 2023. This calendar year, they have lost just once from nine matches at home soil, winning four and drawing four.
With home matches to come against Liverpool, Manchester United, AZ Alkmaar and Leeds United before the season is up, going into those games with improved home form, improved home atmosphere and and improved home scoring record, West Ham can have the faith that on their given day, they can give anyone a test, as proved when drawing 2-2 with Arsenal five days ago.
Unbeaten run growing
In their sixth game in the space of 18 days in April, West Ham added a win to a run of largely impressive results this month, excluding the shock 5-1 loss to Newcastle United at the London Stadium 16 days ago, of course.
Since that defeat, West Ham have not lost, going four matches unbeaten heading into their trip to Premier League relegation-threatened rivals Bournemouth on Sunday.
This run of form is very reminiscent of how West Ham started October, recording wins over Wolverhampton Wanderers, Anderlect (twice) and Fulham before a trip to the south coast to face Southampton, where West Ham came from behind to earn a point.
This time around, it is a similar run. They have beaten Fulham, drawn in Gent, drawn with Arsenal and beaten Gent heading into another trip to the south coast to face the Cherries.
With a semi-final European place booked and one of the best runs of form of the season, West Ham now have all the momentum heading into a pivotal run of Premier League games that could make or break their chances of survival.
Before their semi-final first leg with AZ Alkmaar on May 11, they face Bournemouth, Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Manchester United and Manchester City in the Premier League and depending on how those results go, there is a chance that their spot in next season’s Premier League is all but sealed, but they have to take advantage of this momentum and go on a good run in the league to carry out their European hopes.
They certainly have the momentum and form to do it. Now, they just need the ability to execute it.
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