Jonathan Pearce reacts to Michail Antonio penalty incident in West Ham v Silkeborg
West Ham maintained their impressive run in the Europa Conference League with a narrow 1-0 win over Silkeborg at the London Stadium on Thursday (27 October).
Manuel Lanzini scored from the spot in the first half, and Jonathan Pearce was in disbelief after Nicolai Larsen fouled Michail Antonio in the box.
While commentating the game for the World feed (27 October), the BBC Sport commentator was left the disbelief about the goalkeeper’s decision to come out of his position and challenge Antonio.
“Why on earth did Nicolai Larsen not realise that? Why did he make contact? It was unnecessary,” said Pearce on 23rd minute.
“The ball was running away from Antonio but he got it there. Goalkeeper struck out his leg – Antonio’s playing for it.”
Better team
The Danish side were very solid and organised but the Hammers really were on the better team on the night.
They created some six to seven glorious opportunities, and the scoreline doesn’t reflect the true nature of the performance from the Hammers.
The likes of Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma missed gilt-edged chances, and on another day it could have easily been a different scoreline.
Moyes made nine changes from the side that won against Bournemouth. The biggest surprise was Nayef Aguerd made his long-due debut, and he was brilliant on the night.
Ben Johnson also looked strong in a three-man defence, while Conor Coventry also looked very impressive.
With this result, the Hammers have now secured their passage into the last 16 of this competition.
Moyes will be happy to see that his side is keeping the momentum going, but he would be very disappointed that his players couldn’t kill the game completely despite creating so many clear-cut chances.