Tomas Soucek wows Sky Sports pundit vs Liverpool as Michail Antonio produces stunning West Ham United miscue
Tomas Soucek wowed Courtney Sweetman-Kirk with his “wonderful” ball in to West Ham teammate Michail Antonio at Liverpool, who left her in disbelief with his attempted finish.
The Sky Sports pundit reacted live on the world feed for the game on Sunday (24 September) when the Czech midfielder lifted a perfectly placed cross onto the head of an unmarked Antonio in the Reds box inside the first 15 minutes, only for him to direct it way off target.
Minutes after Alisson had kept Soucek’s own header out with an excellent save the Irons forward didn’t even force him to produce one when it looked like the West Ham opener was about to follow.
Sweetman-Kirk said (2.12pm): “He’s got his head in his hands because he doesn’t know how he’s missed. West Ham, up until today, had the best shot conversion rate in the league.
“It’s a bit blowy up here in the gantry but I don’t know if we can use that as an excuse down at pitch-side.
“You can see the ball in by Soucek is wonderful. He’s got all the time in the world but I don’t know whether he shuts his eyes, I don’t know what it is with Antonio.
“You’ve got to at least be hitting the target.”
Missed opportunity
It was always going to be a tough game to come away from with a positive result, but there was enough in the opening exchanges to suggest West Ham might be one or two goals up.
Soucek did about as well as he could have done with his opportunity and the hosts’ just keeper matched him, but Antonio’s chance was completed wasted.
Once Nayef Aguerd then felled Mohamed Salah in the box at the other end it looked like being an uphill struggle, and so it proved to be despite Jarrod Bowen’s wonderful diving equaliser.
The Irons really needed to be leading, and preferably out of sight, on a day where they were ultimately punished and handed a second straight defeat in the league.
With Sheffield United at home the next top flight fixture West Ham are going to need a win to avoid their strong start to the season being derailed.
They needed to get everything right at Anfield, where they have a poor record, to bounce straight back from the Manchester City loss, and while Soucek did his level best early on he was let down by Antonio’s miscue.
In other West Ham news, a senior player is now expected to leave the London Stadium sooner rather than later after a flashpoint emerged.