Moyes callson Hammers to reign at Palace
David Moyes has challenged West Ham to secure another European adventure with a storming Premier League finish to ease their Europa League disappointment.
The Hammers slipped out of the competition at the quarter-final stage on Thursday evening when newly crowned Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen drew 1-1 at the London Stadium to secure their passage to the last four with a 3-1 aggregate victory.
Moyes’ men entered the competition this season as Europa Conference League winners, but the Scot is hoping they can demonstrate their development by booking more continental action by virtue of their finishing position in the league – and wants a win at Crystal Place this afternoon.
He said: “We would love to do it again, we really would, but you have to remember last year we did it by winning a trophy. It wasn’t our league position last year.
“Our league position this year has improved greatly. We’ve been challenging nearly all season, we’ve been around the top seven or eight all season.
“Obviously, we know the level of the games we’ve got, we know the level of the opponents who are challenging as well for those European positions, so it will be tough. If we can get back to Europe again, I think it would be great.”
Opposite number Oliver Glasner wants Palace to quickly consign their Liverpool triumph to the history books and expects another strong showing against the Hammers.
Palace have allbut secured safety for another Premier League season – when their 1-0 win at Anfield put a dent in Liverpool’s title bid.
They could still influence the business end of the season with matches against four sides currently in the top eight in their last six games of the campaign.
Glasner, for whom the Reds result was just a second win since his appointment two months ago, said: “Of course what we always want to see in training is that the players have a good spirit, a good energy and work very hard - and they really worked hard because it’s very important.
“I don’t want to talk too much about the Liverpool game because it’s over. It’s one week ago, it was a great win, but it doesn’t help us winning against West Ham.
“Maybe regarding the confidence, but the most important thing is that we don’t say ‘last week we won against Liverpool so that automatically means we win against West Ham now’.”