Soucek blunder but Moyes marches on
Great header. Wrong net. tomas Soucek’s own goal wasn’t how milestone man David Moyes envisioned seeing in his 1,000th game, as West Ham surrendered their 100 per cent record in europe.
the visiting supporters, some of them topless, were singing and dancing in their cramped corner of the Cegeka arena. Said Benrahma had scored his second of the evening in the 82nd minute and they thought their side was cruising into the europa League’s knockout stages with a victory.
then Soucek helped the hosts to an equaliser in the 87th minute. He hasn’t scored since the season’s opening day, away at Newcastle, and unfortunately he broke that drought at the wrong end. that’s the bad news.
the good news is West Ham remain unbeaten in the europa League. they’re top of Group H and have qualified. Failure to win last night was certainly not the end of the world.
‘On reflection, a draw might have been the right result,’ said Moyes, whose side were trailing 1-0 at half-time after an uncharacteristically poor first 45. ‘I’d slightly altered a couple of things to see how it would work and if it would go for us.
‘We are trying to rotate the squad and make the most of what we’ve got. We are still new to europe. We knew somewhere along the line it would be bumpy. It wouldn’t always be smooth.’
Sir alex Ferguson’s 1,000th game in charge of Manchester United was a 2-1 win over Lyon. arsene Wenger’s 1,000th in charge of arsenal ended in an extraordinary 6-0 loss at Chelsea. these occasions can go very right, or very wrong.
Moyes (right) named a surprisingly strong side, despite the looming visit of Liverpool on Sunday. Yet even with Declan rice, Michail antonio and the gang starting, it was Genk who dominated. they’re seventh in the Belgian First Division and so haven’t enjoyed the best of seasons. Instead of sacking the manager, John van den Brom, they fired the assistant, Dennis Haar, and had scored 12 goals in the two games since.
Four minutes in, Junya Ito, Genk’s most inventive player, hit a nice pass behind West Ham’s defence. Issa Diop tried to intercept but was sluggish. Joseph Paintsil latched on to the ball instead and beat alphonse areola, despite the goalkeeper getting a hand to the ball.
Genk almost doubled their advantage before the 10-minute mark, with areola saving Bryan Heynen and Paul Onuachu’s headers. rice was getting frustrated and started shouting towards Moyes. West Ham were being outnumbered in midfield. Genk were formed in 1988 — a year after Mark Noble was born. West Ham’s club captain was chasing shadows. West Ham could have equalised before the break but Maarten Vandevoordt stopped Benrahma from tapping in arthur Masuaku’s low cross from the left. then antonio’s shot squirmed under Vandevoordt. the ball was about to cross the line and rice was rushing in to make sure of it, but Patrik Hrosovsky somehow produced a sliding clearance. after 57 minutes, Moyes made a triple substitution — antonio for Jarrod Bowen, Noble for tomas Soucek and Masuaku for Pablo Fornals. Seconds later, it was 1-1 with Vladimir Coufal crossing and Benrahma scoring through the legs of Vandevoordt.
West Ham’s supporters tossed red and blue flares on to the pitch. Coufal sprinted over to throw them to the sidelines. He wanted the game to restart, sensing they could score again.
In the 82nd minute, the visitors thought they’d won it, courtesy of Benrahma. He took the ball by Mujaid Sadick then struck for 2-1. the winner, or so they thought.
In the 87th minute, it was 2-2. angelo Preciado crossed and Soucek could only head the ball into his own net. It didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
WEST HAM (4-2-3-1): Areola 6; Coufal 6.5, Dawson 6, Diop 5.5, Cresswell 6.5; Noble 5.5 (Soucek 58min, 6), Rice 6.5; BENRAHMA 7.5, Lanzini 6.5 (Kral 85), Masuaku 5.5 (Fornals 58); Antonio 6 (Bowen 58, 6). Scorers: Benrahma (59, 82). Booked: Rice, Dawson. Manager: David Moyes 6. Referee: Aleksandar Stavrev 6. Attendance: 12,239.