In this part of the world, on the southern edge of Germany’s Black Forest, Freiburg are known as the Breisgau Brazilians. And so, given this was a contest played in front an entirely home crowd, it seemed fitting that even the opposition’s best player on the night could be considered, in some small way, one of their own.
As West Ham extended their unbeaten run in Europe to 17 matches, a new record for an English club, they had their samba star Lucas Paqueta to hail, the midfielder opening the scoring with a towering header in a peerless display, before Nayef Aguerd’s goal, powered in in similar fashion, secured all three points after Roland Sallai had levelled.
A 2-1 win on the road puts David Moyes’s side firmly in command of Europa League Group A and takes them clear of some of England’s great continental exports. Don Revie’s Leeds, Bill Nicholson’s Tottenham and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City had all shared the previous mark of 16 unbeaten in Uefa competition, the latter having arrived at it with their Champions League victory in Leipzig only last night.
Had things transpired differently this summer, Paqueta could easily have been in action for the treble-winners across the country 24 hours earlier, and would hardly have looked out of place. Here instead, he offered yet another showcase of why Moyes must be so relieved that he was not.
The 26-year-old’s opener was a thing of collective brilliance, the move set up by Mohammed Kudus’s sharp play under pressure and the final ball delivered by the supposedly weak foot of Jarrod Bowen. With Michail Antonio at home injured, West Ham were playing without a recognised centre-forward, but Paqueta charged in off the left to leap high and apply the kind of thunderous finish that would have made all the airborne greats - the Batistutas, Vieiris and Shearers - proud.
West Ham fans were banned from travelling as punishment for some missile-launching in last season’s Europa Conference League final, and so the noise - or lack of it - that greeted ball meeting net was a Covid-era throwback, the applause of Moyes and his coaching staff all that echoed around an otherwise silenced Europa-Park.
Bowen, hours after being recalled to Gareth Southgate’s England squad, had been asked to play as the nominal central figure, but was part of a fluid front-three that offered glimpses of what could become a future blueprint, posing a constant threat even as Freiburg, rated by Moyes as his side’s toughest group stage threat, grew into an increasingly scrappy game.
Jarrod Bowen the orchestrator 🪄
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 5, 2023
Lucas Paqueta the poacher 💥
West Ham take an early lead in Germany! 🤩#UEL pic.twitter.com/1Yi7dKyOcn
Paqueta had the ball in the net again before half-time with a smart lifted finish but was flagged offside. Kudus hit the post with a shot that trickled through the jittery Noah Atubolu and fired just wide of a clincher late on. Bowen tested the keeper at the end of a fine jinking run and should also have ended the contest, sent free by Paqueta, who held off three men on his own for an age before flipping in behind, but shot wide.
The horrendous state of the pitch here no doubt played its part in the lack of control exhibited by either side, the surface by full-time littered with divots and both sets of players finding their shins rather more involved in ball-playing than usual.
Paqueta, though, rose above the mess, as if playing on a different deck, his touch impeccable and only his own joyous arrogance to blame for the odd moment where the ball dared escape his command.
On-song in the Premier League and unbeaten in Europe in well over a year, West Ham are developing a similar swagger.
