Xabi Alonso raves about six West Ham United stars ahead of clash v Bayer Leverkusen
Xabi Alonso has raved about six West Ham players ahead of the Europa League game against Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday (11 April).
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday (10 April, via the Metro), the Leverkusen boss praised Lucas Paqueta, Tomas Soucek, Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Kurt Zouma.
He said they are all “physically very strong players” and are “good on the ball”, adding that the Hammers have European experience under their belt after claiming the Europa Conference League trophy last year.
“Paqueta is a great player, Soucek, Antonio, Kudus, there are a lot of players that we know,” said Alonso. “Mavropanos, Zouma, they are all physically very strong players, good on the ball.
“They won the Europa Conference League last season so they have experience in Europe so they know how to play well. They can be patient, they can be defensive, we are aware of all of that for tomorrow and we want to control the match.”
West Ham must be confident ahead of Bayer Leverkusen clash
This is a game where West Ham have to go into it with the confidence that they can come away from Germany with a positive result.
While it will no doubt be a difficult match following the Bundesliga side’s incredible form this season, the Hammers do still have plenty of quality at their disposal.
David Moyes has some team selection and tactical decisions to make as he will likely set his side up to ensure they are still in the tie ahead of the return fixture at the London Stadium.
But we can’t afford to just sit in and let them play for the entire game, we need the likes of Antonio to help us get up the pitch and create chances.
It’s hard to know what would be a decent result in the first leg, but we simply have to give it our all as this is undoubtedly the biggest match of the campaign so far.
In other West Ham news, the Hammers have received a boost in their pursuit of a Euro forward.
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