Tomas Soucek continued his superb scoring run to snatch a vital victory on a freezing night in Serbia as West Ham secured their place in the Europa League knockout stage.
Soucek’s 89th-minute winner, the Czech’s fifth goal in as many matches for club and country, was the only goal of a drab affair but a 1-0 win over bottom side Backa Topola crucially keeps David Moyes’s men top of Group A heading into the final round of fixtures.
A superior head-to-head record means the Hammers will need only a point against Freiburg at the London Stadium in a fortnight’s time to clinch top spot and thus avoid an extra two-legged play-off in the New Year, despite the Germans hammering Olympiacos 5-0 in Thursday’s other game.
The state of the group made this a peculiarly poised tie, with West Ham neither able to secure top spot with victory, nor lose control of their own destiny with defeat. With Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio still injured, Moyes also left Mohammed Kudus, Vladimir Coufal and Edson Alvarez in London and made seven changes to the side that started the late comeback win at Burnley.
A late goal for the Hammers ⚒️
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 30, 2023
Tomáš Souček is a man in form 🔥#UEL pic.twitter.com/6yvUgrfcBq
They included handing only a second senior start to exciting young striker Divin Mubama. The 19-year-old’s impact of the bench at Turf Moor had helped turn the tide, but isolated up front, he found this a more frustrating evening and was replaced by Danny Ings soon after the hour.
The Hammers managed just one shot on target by that point, Said Benrahma poking tamely at Veljko Ilic in the home goal, while the in-form Soucek headed wide from James Ward-Prowse’s free-kick in the first-half’s best opening.
Broadly, though, the hosts defended Ward-Prowse’s set-pieces well, though they offered little threat themselves, Aaron Cresswell’s wayward square pass almost putting his side in trouble but Lukasz Fabianski otherwise enduring a quiet night in the cold.
That winger Maxwel Cornet had not been afforded a start among Moyes’s rotated cast was telling of the Ivorian’s struggle since arriving from Burnley almost 18 months ago, but off the bench he at last delivered a moment of quality with a fine ball to the far post, which Soucek met on the volley from close-range.
