BBC pundit loses mind over ‘ridiculous’ Lucas Paqueta penalty for West Ham United v Leeds
West Ham managed to keep themselves in touch with the teams around them with a crucial point away at fellow strugglers Leeds United.
The Irons are still just above the drop zone in 17th having moved above Everton in the Premier League table after their 4-1 humbling by Brighton but it was a stressful night at Elland Road.
Wilfried Gnonto had put the Whites ahead early on but a goal either side of half-time from Lucas Paqueta and Gianluca Scamacca had the Hammers ahead before Rodrigo levelled the score at 2-2.
Michael Brown was especially impressed by Paqueta’s strike from the penalty spot after Jarrod Bowen had been fouled by Pascal Struijk to seal what was his first goal for the club since his summer move from Lyon.
“Ridiculous penalty, what a penalty! The keeper goes the right way but the strike is so good,” Brown said on BBC commentary [4 January, 08:32pm]. “It goes high up into the corner. That’s a big goal, it was a proper precious penalty executed as good as you’ll see.”
Better than losing
A trip to fellow relegation candidates is usually a good time to pick up a rare victory but David Moyes won’t be completely despondent at only getting a point.
Leeds were coming off the back of an impressive point away at Newcastle United on New Year’s Eve while West Ham had just been beaten at home by Brentford.
Defeat could have left the Hammers way down in the bottom three and they would be in any way had Aston Villa not equalised late on against Wolves at Villa Park.
It wasn’t a victory as Moyes had hoped for but it is far more beneficial to pick up the odd point wherever you can rather than carry on losing every week in the hope of the occasional win.
Every player gave it their all in a high-intensity game and looked to do the right things as much as possible and on another day, they could have easily come away from Yorkshire with all three points.