Bowen and Scamacca ease West Ham into Conference League quarter-finals
Goals from Gianluca Scamacca, Jarrod Bowen and the teenager Divin Mubama made it a perfect 10 wins out of 10 for West Ham in the Europa Conference League. The Hammers put their domestic struggles to one side to sweep past the Cypriot side AEK Larnaca 4-0 at the London Stadium, and 6-0 on aggregate, to reach the quarter-finals.
Scamacca, West Ham’s £35m summer signing who has struggled in the Premier League, was handed his chance in attack with Michail Antonio out injured. The Italian’s scuffed effort squirmed through the grasp of the goalkeeper Kenan Piric to give West Ham the lead before the visitors were reduced to 10 men just before half-time.
West Ham doubled their lead 90 seconds into the second half when Piric palmed Scamacca’s shot to the feet of Bowen, who finished at the far post. Just two minutes later Bowen scored a third with a header, in the process becoming West Ham’s all-time leading scorer in Europe with eight goals.
There was then a special moment for Mubama, the 18-year-old scoring his first career goal with a flick from Tomas Soucek’s header.
West Ham’s manager David Moyes said: “We did a really professional job.
It was always a risky game and if they got a goal back we’d maybe get a bit anxious.”
Meanwhile, in the Europa League José Mourinho’s Roma held Real Sociedad
to a goalless draw in Spain to seal their tie 2-0 on aggregate. The home team dominated the chances but the Italians held them at bay with stoic defending. Roma were the inaugural
Europa Conference League winners last season.
Juventus defeated 10-man Freiburg 2-0 to advance 3-0 on aggregate as Dusan Vlahovic scored from the penalty spot and Federico Chiesa added a late second.
Feyenoord thrashed Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk 7-1 to progress 8-2 on aggregate as the captain Orkun Kokcu and the forward Oussama Idrissi each scored twice.
The record six-times Europa League winners, Sevilla, advanced despite a 1-0 loss to Fenerbahce, going through 2-1 on aggregate. Enner Valencia converted a penalty for the Turkish side.
Moussa Diaby’s early goal and Amine Adli’s second-half strike were enough for Bayer Leverkusen to secure a 2-0 victory at the Hungarian side Ferencvaros as the German club advanced 4-0 on aggregate.
Teddy Teuma, Lazare Amani and Loïc Lapoussin scored for the Belgian team Royale UnionSaint-Gilloise as they defeated Union Berlin 3-0 to secure a 6-3 aggregate win.