West Ham 3-1 Backa Topola: Hammers survive scare to beat Serbian minnows in Europa League opener… with £38m man Mohammed Kudus living up to his billing by netting the winner

Mohammed Kudus arrived from Ajax for £38million to much excitement around West Ham and David Moyes hopes this will be the first of many magical moments for his new man.

For a while, Moyes feared that he would, well, get Moyes in this Europa League match. Like West Ham in the Premier League, Backa Topola arrived here with a plan to forego possession, hoping that a solid defensive shape would allow them to score a goal.

The Serbian visitors took the lead after a criminal error by Angelo Ogbonna, which set West Ham up against it at the London Stadium. Still, Kudus showed his worth in this moment.

Kudus thought the equalizer was his, but it was punished as an own goal by Nemanja Petrovic in the 66th minute. But there was no doubt he scored West Ham’s next goal in the 70th when he headed in James Ward-Prowse’s corner.

This was a soggy night in Stratford and with the help of Kudus, West Ham were finally able to open the floodgates. Tomas Soucek later completed the scoring from another Ward-Prowse corner, his fifth assist in all competitions this season.

Mohammed Kudus arrived from Ajax for £38m, much to excitement around West Ham

James Ward-Prowse registered two assists during the match against Serbian minnows

Moyes made nine changes from West Ham’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester City and yet his selection demonstrated the squad’s depth. First start for Kudus, their £38m man from Ajax. First minutes for Konstantinos Mavropanos, £18m from Stuttgart. First appearance for Lukasz Fabianski since losing his Premier League place in goal to Alphonse Areola. This was a team that could and should dismiss their Serbian opponents.

Kudus’ first contribution in a West Ham shirt was winning a free-kick, 25 yards and central to the goal. Ward-Prowse resigned – who else? – but a notch at the top of the wall took him over the goal.

Kudus brought excitement with his energetic rushing from the right. That opened space for Thilo Kehrer to fly down the flank and in the 16th minute only an instinctive save from Nikola Simic denied the right-back the opener.

In the 25th minute Kudus won the ball high up the pitch and then had a pop from 20 yards, a deflection from Nemanja Stojic that sent the ball narrowly wide. From the corner, Mavropanos’ header went wide of the goal. Shortly afterwards Kudus also set out.

It was all West Ham. As halftime approached, they had 84 percent of the ball. You’d have to go back to August 2018 to find the last time they finished a match at over 80 percent – a Carabao Cup tie with League One Wimbledon.

But despite seeing the whole ball, it still didn’t cross the line, prompting the Serbian visitors to issue two warnings. A corner kick from Petar Stanic was almost tapped in by Milan Radin. Then another Stanic corner led to Stojic’s header going past the crossbar.

The opener came in the 47th minute and thanks to Ogbonna it went to Topola. He hesitated with the ball for so long that he left Stanic one on one with Fabianski, who could not prevent the score from becoming 1-0.

You could barely hear the celebrations of the 100 away fans making the 2,500-mile tour of the London Stadium. They were drowned out by the cries of West Ham, who faced a shock defeat. Topola may be top of the Serbian Superliga, but even their own manager, Zarko Lazetic, said they felt like ‘guests’ of West Ham.

In his hour of need, Moyes turned to Michail Antonio, but it was Topola’s Petrovic who made it 1-1 in the 66th minute with Kudus nearby. Kudus at least scored in the 70th minute when he met Ward-Prowse’s corner. Phew, Moyes thought.

There was still time for one more goal when Ward-Prowse whipped home another corner, this time finding Soucek as West Ham made a winning start in the Europa League.

More to follow…