Tomas Soucek admits that West Ham United's disappointment at the semi-final stage of the Europa League last season can motivate them to success against AZ Alkmaar.
The Hammers are in Holland to face AZ in the second leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final tie, with West Ham holding a slender one-goal advantage from the first leg at the London Stadium, having come from a goal down to win the game 2-1.
But the tie is far from over, with the Dutch side having a superb home record in European competitions, having not lost in any of their last 25 matches in Europe on home soil.
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Soucek knows that it will be a tough test for the Hammers, but the Czech Republic international is keen for West Ham to put the pain of losing to Eintracht Frankfurt at the semi-final stage of the Europa League last season behind them, and go at least one step further by reaching the final of the Europa Conference League.
And he says that West Ham have to take lessons from the disappointment last season as they bid to reach the final in his home city of Prague next month.
"I remember last year that we were very disappointed after the semi-final and even more a few days and few months after that we didn’t reach the final," he said, speaking ahead of the game. "Now, it’s even more motivation for all of us that we know we are one game from it, especially when we lost it last year, it makes it even more for this year.
"I didn’t watch the [Frankfurt] game because I was so disappointed for many days and even months. Even now, I wanted to be there in the final, but I remember nearly every set-piece or [thing] we could do better this time and even I saw that we didn’t do well in the first leg, so I was happy that we did now in the first leg. Every tie is very important to go in the right direction for the first one, but now, we have a second leg and we have to show at least a similar performance to the last leg at home.
"[We learned] To go from the first minute of the first-leg, we did that better than last year. It’s a massive improvement but now we’re here and we’re all motivated to get to the final because we know that West Ham haven’t for a few years and we want to give our fans this chance to get to the final. That’s our goal for all of us, so I think we’re even more motivated than last year.
"Since I knew the final is in Prague – at the beginning of the season – I told the guys: come on we need to go there because it’s my home. So it’s an even special motivation for me to get there because I know the stadium very well. I came there at 10 years old so it’s another special motivation."
Meanwhile, Soucek says there are also things West Ham have learned from the first leg with AZ last week, with the midfielder calling on his teammates to show more of the same from the second half at the London Stadium as goals from Said Benrahma and Michail Antonio turned the game in the Hammers' favour, after Tijjani Reijnders had given the visitors the lead in the first half.
Indeed, Soucek admits that there was a lesson for the Hammers in how that game panned out, after a difficult first half as they looked to come to terms with the AZ playing style.
"We knew from the videos that they can play from the goalkeeper with good style. We also know how they played in the Dutch league and a few games in the Conference League as well," he said.
"We saw a few clips but we also learned a lot from the game we played. We all want to be more like the second half, when we were very good, that’s our lesson from the game."
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