WHZ On This Day: West Ham defeat Liverpool in 2016 FA Cup run
Today marks five years since a famous FA Cup win for West Ham at the Boleyn Ground.
The Hammers, managed by Slaven Bilic, defeated Liverpool 2-1 to advance to the fifth round of the competition in front of 34,433 fans.
In what was probably the last great FA Cup night at Upton Park, we fielded a strong XI to take on Jurgen Klopp’s men. Five of that team – Darren Randolph, Angelo Ogbonna, Aaron Cresswell, Mark Noble and Michail Antonio, are still in our squad this season.
Goals from Antonio and Philippe Coutinho took the tie to extra time. An Ogbonna header in the 120th minute of action was enough to send us through.
This was obviously assisted by the mercurial midfielder, Dimitri Payet, because how else did we score goals in 2016?
It was a magical night at our former home. Admittedly, we haven’t been able to create any Cup memories like this yet in the London Stadium.
The last good cup run
2016 was a fantastic year for West Ham. Led by Payet, we made it to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, where we met tonight’s opponents, Manchester United.
The Red Devils really did spoil the party that year. After breezing past Blackburn 5-1 in the fifth round, we travelled to Old Trafford.
Payet scored one of our best FA Cup goals, firing in a freekick from 30 yards out past a full-stretched David De Gea.
9,000 travelling Hammers broke into a chorus of ‘We’ve got Payet, Dimtri Payet’ in reaction to a goal that had silenced the home crowd.
Anthony Martial took the game back to Upton Park with a late equaliser. Ultimately, we were defeated after a wondergoal from 18-year-old Marcus Rashford and some questionable officiating for their winner.
This season is the furthest we’ve got in the FA Cup in six seasons, so lets please give United a fight tonight. They took away from us the chance to win the cup in our last season at Upton Park.
How special it would have been.
In other West Ham news, Mark Lawrenson has predicted the winner of tonight’s clash.