West Ham squad warned of David Moyes’ European past ahead of Europa League 2nd leg
West Ham United manager David Moyes has reminded his squad of his own previous experiences in European competition ahead of Thursday’s big game.
The Irons welcome Sevilla back to the London Stadium tomorrow having been narrowly beaten by the La Liga outfit 1-0 in the Spanish sun one week ago.
Hammers boss Moyes has previous experience of Europe with both Everton and Manchester United and has been quick to teach his players of the twists and turns two-legged knockout football can bring.
“I’ve told the players about a couple of my experiences,” the boss said in his pre-match press conference.
“In the Champions League at Man Utd, I was 2-0 down at Olympiakos and came back to win 3-2. With Everton, we were 2-0 down to Fiorentina and went on to win 2-0 at Goodison, but unfortunately lost on penalty kicks.
“I’ve been there before. You can’t go gung-ho and think you have to score in the first two minutes.
“I hope we do, but the game lasts 90 minutes, so at the worst, we have to win by a goal, but we have to see if we can get the home advantage. If we have to be ready to go to 120 minutes, we have to be ready for that.”
Uncomplicated
Whether last week’s game had finished 1-0 or 0-0 doesn’t really matter when it comes to the mindset of the Hammers tomorrow evening.
For them, it is thankfully a very simple equation for them to work out.
Win. That is all they need to do to give themselves a chance as the worst they can get by winning the game in 90minutes is extra time if they only beat the Spaniards by one goal.
The issues will start if the players are too busy trying to work out what they need to do in their heads rather than play the game that is in front of them.
As long as Moyes can get them to play with freedom, things should be relatively straightforward for the Irons but anything less might see them bow out of the Europa League to the six-time champions.
In other West Ham news, one Hammer may well be facing a court appearance after a major development in the past few hours.
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