BAYER LATE SHOW ROCKS MOYES’ SIDE
IN THE city famous for its giant aspirin factory, Victor Boniface gave David Moyes his biggest headache in Europe with West Ham.
And it will take more than a couple of plinkplink-fizz to make this one go away in London next Thursday.
For 83 minutes, it looked as if the Hammers would become only the sixth team to stop Bayer Leverkusen winning all season.
But then substitute Jonas Hofmann smuggled his shot from 18 yards through a crowded box and beyond unsighted keeper Lukasz Fabianksi, who had been in inspired form a week before his 39th birthday.
And in stoppage time another sub, Victor Boniface, headed Hofmann’s cross into the bottom corner, extending Leverkusen’s remarkable run to 42 games unbeaten this season.
West Ham boss Moyes has enjoyed some glorious nights in Europe in the last three seasons, lifting his first trophy in 1,100 games as a manager last June.
Rabbit
But he won’t just need to deliver the team talk of his life in the return leg — he will have to produce the proverbial rabbit from a top hat.
And he will have to do it without his suspended playmaker Lucas Paqueta, who picked up his 13th booking for club and country this season.
Leverkusen have only won a single trophy in their 120-year history, but under Xabi Alonso they may be about to win three in one season.
There is a good reason why they have gone 42 games unbeaten this season — they are pretty good.
Bayer could clinch the Bundesliga title this weekend, they are in the German cup final and don’t write them off as Europa League winners.
West Ham squandered a yawning chance to test the German invincibles’ appetite for a battle after 10 minutes, when Mohammed Kudus applied a feeble finish from Michail Antonio’s burst and low cross. But after that, only Fabianski’s heroics kept the Eastenders in business.
The Polish veteran intervened at least four times before the break, at varying degrees of full stretch, to deny dominant Leverkusen.
Concern
Amine Adli, Alejandro Grimaldo, Patrik Schick and Edmond Tapsoba all found Fabianski in inspired form, but of equal concern for
Moyes was Paqueta’s dangerous liaison with the self-destruct button.
The Brazilian’s robust challenge on Adli earned ruled him out of next week’s second leg.
That’s 13 bookings in 39 games for club and country this season
And without the injured Jarrod Bowen, the Hammers were unable to sustain their excursions into German territory.
BAYER LEVERKUSEN: Kovar, Stanisic (Hincapie 66), Tah, Tapsoba, Frimpong (Tella 67), Palacios, Xhaka, Grimaldo, Wirtz, Adli (Hofmann 76), Schick (Boniface 76), Puerta, Lomb.
WEST HAM: Fabianski, Mavropanos (Aguerd 86), Zouma, Cresswell, Coufal, Soucek, Ward-Prowse, Emerson Palmieri, Kudus (Johnson 86), Lucas Paqueta, Antonio, Knightbridge, Orford. Referee: A S Dias (Porto).
BON’ TARGET: Victor Boniface scores his side’s second