Soucek leaves it late to give West Ham and ugly victory in the Europa League
Reading Time: 3min | Thu. 30.11.23. | 22:45
The Hammers will still need to win at home in the last round in order to secure the first place
The Conference League winners in 2023 played against TSC Bačka Topola from Serbia in the fifth round of the Europa League and wanted an away win against the hosts who are winless so far in order to get back to the top of the group. They played badly, they huffed and puffed, they had only two shots on goal in 90 minutes, yet they somehow broke the strong defensive live of the hosts and won in the 89th minute: TSC Bačka Topola – West Ham United 0-1. Tomas Soucek was the savior, as the Czech midfielder scored his seventh goal of the season and is second scorer for the Hammers. Jarrod Bowen, who is currently injured tops the list with 16 goals, while Lucas Paqueta is on the third spot with five goals, but he was fruitless tonight, as most of his teammates. Coach David Moyes promoted 19-year-old Divin Mubama as a striker, since Mikail Antonio was injured, but he did little, as well as his partner Benrahma.
3 - Tomás Soucek has scored in three games in a row for West Ham for the first time. All three goals have been the winner:
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 30, 2023
88th minute vs Nottingham Forest
90th minute vs Burnley
89th minute vs Backa Topola
Drama. pic.twitter.com/O6ZhCjmlQR
In the Europa League, the eight group winners earn a direct place in the last 16 of the competition whereas finishing in second place only gets a team a playoff match against the clubs who drop into the Europa League as third-place finishers in Champions League groups. This season, that could easily be the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United or Newcastle, so West Ham needed a win. However, they will still have a crucial game in the last round with Freiburg, who tops the group after a 5-0 hammering of Olympiacos.
West Ham had plenty of possession and control, but they've struggled to break Backa down. Only two chances were worth mentioning in the first half and they were both for the hosts. Milovanović took the shot but luckily for West Ham, he wasn‘t precise, allowing Fabianski to make his first save of the day. After almost half an hour, he was called again to act, this time after a mistake from his teammate Cresswell, who allowed Cirkovic to get into the box, but the Polish keeper was again there. West Ham realized they need to move forward if they are to score, but without their best offensive players, it was hard against disciplined Serbian team, until Soucek headed the ball sent to him by Cornet in the 89th minute and got the much needed winner.
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
Group stage - Matchday 5
Thursday
Freiburg - Olympiakos 5-0 (4-0)
/Gregoritsh 3, 8, 36, Sildillia 42, Doan 77/
TSC Backa Topola - West Ham 0-1 (0-0)
/Soucek 89/
AEK - Brighton 0-1 (0-0)
/Pedro 55/
Sparta Praha - Betis 1-0 (0-0)
/Haraslin 54/
Atalanta - Sporting 1-1 (1-0)
/Scamacca 23 - Edwards 56/
Sturm - Rakow 0-1 (0-0)
/Jeboah 81/
Maccabi Haifa - Rennes 0-3 (0-1)
/Terrier 29, Gouiri 47, Rieder 90+3/
23:00: (1.67) Olympique Marseille (4.00) Ajax (5.60)
23:00: (1.32) Rangers (5.30) Aris Limmasol (9.50)
23:00: (1.15) Liverpool (10.5) LASK (17.0)
23:00: (2.30) Toulouse (3.50) St.Gilloise (3.25)
23:00: (2.05) Villareal (3.60) Panathinaikos (3.90)
23:00: (4.20) Servette (3.50) Roma (1.87)
23:00: (5.60) Sheriff Tiraspol (3.70) Slavia Praha (1.65)
23:00: (8.00) Hacken (5.00) Leverkusen (1.38)
23:00: (1.95) Molde (3.60) Qarabag (4.20)
***odds are subject to change***
