MOYES BOYS A BIG NOISE
NOT even a national lockdown can stop West Ham’s march through Europe right now.
Boss David Moyes had warned that the silence of playing in a stadium with no fans would prove a challenge in Austria.
But his side were in the mood to make a big noise and they made it four wins and a draw on their return to the European stage.
A first Hammers goal since January for Andriy Yarmolenko (inset) and a Mark Noble penalty put them firmly in the driving seat in an empty Allianz Stadion in Vienna.
And Moyes and his understrength side cruised into the last 16 as Group H winners.
That means they avoid a play-off with a team finishing third in their Champions League group.
Hammers boss Moyes said: “I’d be happy to take on most teams. It’s a great achievement for us. “The effort you have to put in is unbelievable. It was a really good professional job The players who have come in have performed well.”
New Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky confirmed earlier in the day that his £150m buy-in to the club doesn’t mean big spending in January. And this was a chance for Moyes to see how good his squad is, with Michail Antonio and Lukasz Fabianski staying at home. The Hammers boss made eight changes from the team which lost to Wolves last Saturday, with big guns like Declan Rice, Kurt Zouma and Pablo Fornals benched.
They should have been in front when a stretching Jarrod Bowen jabbed a brilliant delivery from Arthur Masuaku wide early on.
But they didn’t make their dominance count until the end of the first half when Yarmolenko headed home a deep hanging cross from Nikola Vlasic.
Yarmolenko then won a penalty after a foul by Max Hoffmann and Noble stepped up to give the visitors a 2-0 half-time lead.
Moyes even had the luxury before the end of seeing 17-yearold debutant Sonny Perkins come off the bench to have a decent header saved.
WEST HAM (4-3-3): Areola 6; COUFAL 8, Dawson 6, Diop 6, Masuaku 7 (Fredericks 77); Noble 6, Soucek 6 (Kral 65, 6), Lanzini 6 (Fornals 65, 6); Bowen 6 (Benrahma 65, 6), Yarmolenko 7, Vlasic 7 (Perkins 77).