West Ham’s sweet revenge against Olympiacos, Marseille wins it in Athens

Prior to the Round 3 of the Europa League, West Ham hold a record for an English club, as the Hammers were on a 17-match unbeaten run in Europe, but Olympiacos ended the streak with a 2-1 win in Athens. With a wish for revenge, David Moyes’ team hosted the Greeks in Round 4 and managed a minimal win, which was enough to maintain the race for the first place in the group. For the moment, Germany’s Freiburg is better on goal difference, since they defeated Serbian TSC 4-0 at home. The winner of the group automatically qualifies for the elimination round, while the second placed team has to go into play-offs with the teams eliminated from the Champions League.

This win was in no way an easy one. West Ham played with a combined team as both Alvarez and Paqueta came back, but Zouma was injured and Soucek and Michail Antonio were on the bench. And it was precisely the absence of the West Ham’s only recognizable striker which caused problems for the home team. With Bowen playing as a false nine, goals were hard to come by. There were plenty of good attacks and crosses, especially in the first half, but there was nobody to use them. Only in the 73rd minute did the Hammers score the only goal of the game, when Ward-Prowse made a great pass to Paqueta, who volleyed it for the lead. The goal was instantly denied due to offside, but VAR checked and overturned the side referees’ decision. It was only then, when West Ham scored, that the guests, which were firm to secure a draw, started to play and in fact had three really good chances, but missed them all.

Since taking over from Marcelino almost 45 days ago Gennaro Gattuso won seven of the possible nine points in Europe for Marseille. After tonight’s 0-2 win against AEK in Athens, a victory in the next round at home against Ajax would ‘cement’ Marseille's European spring in the Europa League. However, the visiting team allowed too much tonight to Matias Almeida's players. Marseille scored an early goal, but the home side had 21 shot on goal throughout the 90 minutes, yet they failed to equalize and then allowed another goal from the counter-attack in injury time. It was an intense match in which Marseille fought for their lives but survived the Greek storm and are going home with all three points.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

Group stage - matchday 4

Thursday

Ajax - Brighton 0-2 (0-1)

/Fati 15, Adingra 53/

LASK - Royale Union Saint-Gilloise 3-0 (2-0)

/Horvath 25, Talovierov 45+4, Zulj 77/

Maccabi Haifa - Villarreal 1-2 (1-0)

/Seck 32 - Baena 83, Sorloth 87/

Qarabag - Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 (0-0)

/Boniface 90+3 pen/

Rennes - Panathinaikos 3-1 (1-1)

/Rieder 9, Salah 65, Blas 70 pen - Ioannidis 34/

Servette - Sreriff Tiraspol 2-1 (0-1)

/Rouiller 84, Bedia 90 pen - Severin 12 og/

Slavia Prague - Roma 2-0 (0-0)

/Jurecka 50, Masopust 74/

Toulouse - Liverpool 3-2 (1-0)

/Donnum 36, Dallinga 58, Magri 76 - Casseres 74 og, Diogo Jota 89/

Freiburg - TSC 5-0 (1-0)

/Rohl 24, Eggestein 56, Weisshaubt 67, Adamu 80, Doan 90+2/

West Ham - Olympiacos 1-0 (0-0)

/Paqueta 73/

AEK - Marseille 0-2 (0-1)

/Mbemba 25, Sarr 90+3/

Betis - Aris Limmasol 4-1 (1-0)

/Iglesias 34, Ruibal 64, Roca 79 - Kokorin 84/

Rangers - Sparta Prag 2-1 (2-0)

/Danilo 11, Cantwell 20 - Haraslin 77/

Atalanta - Sturm 1-0 (0-0)

/Djimsiti 50/

Sporting CP - Rakow 2-1 (1-0)

/Goncalves 14, 52 - Rundic 71/

Hacken - Molde 1-3 (0-2)

/Hrstić 65 - Gulbrandsen 18, Eriksen 24, 86/