Fighting mars Hammers’ cup win

WEST HAM UNITED

Kouyate 11, Fernandes 48

CHELSEA

Cahill 90

2

Clashes between rival supporters marred West Ham United’s EFL Cup fourthround win over Chelsea at the former Olympic Stadium.

Skirmishes broke out towards the end of the Hammers’ impressive 2-1 victory as police and stewards battled to maintain segregation behind the goal being defended by West Ham.

This derby was billed as the biggest footballing test for the London Stadium so far on a night when basketball and track cycling competitions were also taking place on the former Olympic Park.

The capacity is capped at 57,000 and 45,957 were in attendance, along with a heavy police presence.

Chelsea sold out their allocation of 5,182 tickets and, with the Hammers 2-0 up, trouble broke out.

West Ham were well in control of the tie at that point. Cheikhou Kouyate rose ahead of restored Chelsea captain John Terry to head the Hammers in front and Edimilson Fernandes, pictured, struck a second three minutes after the interval.

Fernandes cut in on to his left foot before firing a shot through Terry’s legs and into the bottom corner for his first Hammers goal.

Costa tested the Hammers on numerous occasions, but Chelsea’s only reply was Gary Cahill’s late strike, when all the attention had switched to the unsavoury scenes behind the goal. Sofiane Boufal marked his St Mary’s debut with a stunning strike to fire Southampton into the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup.

The club’s record signing, whose introduction to English football has been delayed by injury, curled in a sensational effort to sink Sunderland 1-0.

It was just a shame that so few were there to see it, with Saints’ ground half empty and an entire stand shut for the fourth-round tie.

The stay-aways looked to have made the right decision, however, as an hour desperately short on quality ticked painfully by.

But in the 66th minute Boufal, the £21 million summer signing from Lille, scored a fabulous winner to pile on the misery for Sunderland.

To add to their problems the Black Cats, whose only two wins all season have come in this competition, had manager David Moyes sent to the stands after they were denied a late penalty.

Boufal’s goal was the first bit of quality of the night.

The 23-year-old controlled an up-and-under from James Ward-prowse superbly, stepped around Jones, looked up and curled an unstoppable shot over the diving Jordan Pickford and inside the far post.

Moyes’ frustration boiled over in stoppage time when no penalty was given after Victor Anichebe went down under Maya Yoshida’s challenge, and watched the dying moments from the stands.