West Ham 4-0 Larnaca (6-0 agg): David Moyes’s side put Premier League woes aside as they advance to the Europa Conference League quarter-finals, with Jarrod Bowen scoring an impressive brace
- West Ham made light work of Larnaca as they progressed to the last eight
- Friday’s draw will be closely watched in East London after this latest success.
- Divin Mubama was the story of Thursday night when the teenager entered the scoreboard
Divin Mubama, 18, of West Ham, scored his first senior goal for the club as David Moyes’ side scored a perfect 10 in the Europa Conference League.
It was a moment to savor for Mubama, a youngster born and raised in Newham who is scoring for fun for the Under 18s and Under 21s.
His goal capped a 4-0 win (6-0 on aggregate) over Cypriot side Larnaca ahead of Friday’s quarter-final draw.
Gianluca Scamacca helped his team there when he started, ran and scored the first goal. Who says managerial mind games don’t work?
The £35.5m striker spent this week listening to Moyes criticize his ‘physical data’, but he delivered here. Like Jarrod Bowen, he scored twice against Larnaca’s 10 men.
This made it 10 wins from 10 European outings for West Ham this season and while they may be having a drab season domestically, the bookies say this competition is theirs to lose.
Despite their impeccable record in the Europa Conference League, there were plenty of empty seats at the London Stadium. Partly because of the latest train strike, but perhaps also because the fans weren’t expecting an eventful evening.
The DJ, light show and fire cannons at London Stadium all tried to set the mood, but the best way to do that is on the pitch and Moyes’s men were on top from the start.
West Ham had the lead after 20 minutes when Scamacca cut inside Mikel González. He produced a toe-poke that slipped under Kenan Piric for 1-0. Not the prettiest shot, but they all count.
Larnaca thought he had scored before half an hour through Nemanja Nikolic, only to have it ruled out for offside by a lengthy VAR check. West Ham was looking for the second goal and after 36 minutes Pablo Fornals finished off the crossbar.
As the fans were distracted by an argument between the home and away support, with the stewards caught in the middle, referee Georgi Kabakov was sent to his pitchside monitor. Gustavo Ledes had sunk his studs into Fornals’ lower leg and VAR decided that his yellow needed to change to red.
Sportingly, Fornals seemed to defend Ledes, but was fired anyway.
Manuel Lanzini left the pitch shirtless at half-time, apparently with an opponent under his armpit. With only 10 men, Larnaca looked like they had given up and were here for souvenirs.
In minute 47, the 2-0. Scamacca’s shot was saved, but Bowen sent the rebound between Piric’s legs. In the 49th, it was 3-0, as Aaron Cresswell’s cross led to a looping header from Bowen.
It was a brilliantly impromptu finish and Bowen has now led himself to eight goals for West Ham in Europe, making him the club’s all-time European goalscorer.
This had become an attack versus defense training exercise and Mubama was introduced during the last half hour. In minute 65 came his great moment. Tomas Soucek headed the ball into the area and Mubama finished to make it 4-0.
West Ham didn’t need Divin’s intervention to win this tie, but they did it anyway.