West Ham have booked their place in European competition once again, after their 6-1 aggregate win over Danish side Viborg in Europa Conference League playoff.
David Moyes, who was back on the touchline after serving his suspension, made 5 changes to the side that lost 2-0 to Brighton at the weekend. Areola, Johnson and Lanzini came into the lineup, alongside summer signings Scamacca and Cornet.
It was Scamacca who opened the scoring after 22 minutes, as the Italian met Soucek’s cross at the front post and flicked the ball past the Viborg goalkeeper.
Viborg came close to levelling the score just before half time, but Areola produced a fantastic double save to keep out efforts from Justin Lonwijk and former Leeds forward Jay-Roy Grot.
6 minutes into the second half, and West Ham had doubled their lead. Said Benrahma got on the end of Maxwel Cornet’s through ball and slotted his shot into the bottom left corner.
Tomas Soucek added the third and final goal of the game 12 minutes later, tapping home from close range after the Viborg goalkeeper parried Thilo Kehrer’s header into the path of the Czech midfielder.
This win means that the Hammers will be playing in the Europa Conference League this season, and will look to better last seasons Europa League semi final, and potentially win the competition.
After the game, Moyes told the press, “This is a competition we want to try and get through. We earned the right and we want to try and stay in it if we can”. At the time of writing this, West Ham are yet to find out who will be drawn alongside them for the upcoming group stages.
Next up for Moyes and his side is a trip to Villa Park, to face Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday.
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