MOYES: NEVER HAD IT SO KUD
WEST HAM routed Freiburg 5-0 at London Stadium to easily turn around a 1-0 first-leg deficit and reach the Europa League last eight.
First-half goals from Lucas Paqueta and Jarrod Bowen were added to by Aaron Cresswell and a sublime Mohammed Kudus double in the second period.
Hammers boss David Moyes toasted a third straight European quarterfinal, saying: “From where we’ve come from, a team avoiding relegation, it’s a brilliant achievement.
“The club has moved on so much in the last few years. It’s hard to point out how good it’s been.
“And we want to make it better if we can.”
Kudus capped Hammers’ triumph with a remarkable fourth goal that saw the Ghanaian dribble 60 yards before drilling past hapless Freiburg keeper Noah Atubolu – and his midrange curling strike for the fifth was not bad either.
“Snakehips,” Moyes said. “It was a brilliant individual goal, a Roy of the Rovers type goal really.”
Liverpool completed an elementary success over Sparta Prague as they went goal crazy in the early stages at Anfield.
Jurgen Klopp’s men – who led 5-1 from the first leg – scored four times in the opening 14 minutes against hapless Sparta.
They ended up having to settle for a 6-1 win for a whopping 11-2 aggregate
success. Darwin Nunez got the ball rolling in the seventh minute and that was followed 60 seconds later by youngster Bobby Clark’s first European goal.
Two minutes later, Mo Salah made it 3-0 and Cody Gakpo added a fourth before the quarter-hour mark was even reached.
Sparta pulled one back before half-time via Veljko Birmancevic but Dominik Szoboszlai netted early in the second half.
Gakpo added his second as the scoring ended on six in the 55th minute.
Brighton bowed out with a much-improved display as they beat Roma 1-0.
Roberto de Zerbi’s men had crashed 4-0 in Rome in the first leg but Danny Welbeck’s first-half goal gave them some cheer.
Meanwhile, in the Conference League Aston Villa thrashed Ajax 4-0 to progress thanks to Ollie Watkins – who went off injured – Leon Bailey, Jhon Duran and Moussa Diaby.
Ajax’s Sivert Mannsverk was sent off in 66 minutes.
Villa skipper John McGinn said: “That was a great performance and it’s going to lift us. We want to achieve more.”