West Ham 5 Freiburg 0 (agg 5-1): Hammers secure huge comeback win despite Paqueta tantrum after being subbed
WEST HAM turned on the style to fire their way into the Europa League quarter-finals.
David Moyes took the handbrake off and was rewarded with five goals, including two stunners from Mohammed Kudus.
After disappointing displays in the first leg and against Burnley on Sunday, this was a reminder of West Ham’s newfound European pedigree.
Lucas Paqueta’s early goal got this second leg off to the perfect start before Jarrod Bowen and Aaron Cresswell both scored fine goals either side of the break to lift the mood in East London.
Kudus then took the roof off with a stunning solo goal, covering three quarters of the pitch on a superb solo run to get his first before drilling in a fabulous fifth to seal an 11th straight home win in Europe.
Moyes will continue to split opinion in the stands and debate over whether he should stay or go will rumble on until the summer.
But it cannot be denied that when he needs a big performance, the Scot usually gets it. Freiburg, despite being lesser opposition, can be listed alongside Sevilla and Lyon as another memorable night.
By the end, the boos from Burnley on Sunday had been replaced by ‘oles’ and optimism of another European push.
Despite fears over a struggle to sell tickets due to the early start, the London Stadium was near capacity and full of voice as the Hammers looked to turn this tie around.
Backed by the din the hosts made a flying start. Moyes had criticised Paqueta for his performance in Germany last week, but the Brazilian delivered after just nine minutes here.
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With set-piece specialist James Ward-Prowse dropped to the bench, Aaron Cresswell stepped in and delivered a peach of a corner to the front post.
Tomas Soucek’s diving header diverted the ball to the far post where it was met by Paqueta to begin the comeback.
The opener may have come from a set piece, but the Hammers were already showing more energy than across 90 minutes in the Black Forest, or the first half against Burnley.
With the added attacking players, West Ham were still not completely secure at the back.
But the addition of Michail Antonio had transformed them going forward and saw Bowen back in his more natural wide role.
If there had been doubts about why Gareth Southgate had elected to call-up the winger for England earlier in the day, they were banished just after the half-hour mark when Bowen put the Hammers ahead in this tie for the first time.
Collecting Soucek’s header, which had been well left by Antonio, Bowen turned, shrugged off the much bigger Christian Gunter and drilled a superb low effort into the bottom right.
After reaching the semi-finals last time they were in this competition and winning the Europa Conference League last season, Moyes had called on his players to show their European clout here.
Just minutes into the second half, they stamped their authority on this tie to banish any half-time jitters.
Kudus dug a cross out from the left which was half-cleared to Vladimir Coufal. The Czech found Bowen who lifted his head to pick out Cresswell.
The left-back, who was sent off in quarter-final and semi-final ties during West Ham’s last Europa League run, composed himself with a touch and lashed a superb finish into the far corner.
The best was yet to come, though, with Kudus – another Moyes was unhappy with last week – pulled out a goal of the season contender, picking up the ball deep in his own half, driving 80 yards past three Freiburg defenders and finishing cooling in the bottom corner.
Moyes had started making the changes and was about to bring Kudus off for youngster George Earthy, but the Ghanaian star was not quite done.
Soucek and Bowen broke together with the latter teeing up Kudus on the edge of the box. The ex-Ajax man shaped to bend the ball into the far corner before ratting in at the near post.