West Ham have taken huge delight in being able to rub their victory over Lyon in the faces of the French side after some pre-match gloating backfired spectacularly.
The Hammers arrived at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais knowing there was plenty to do after drawing 1-1 in the first leg back in East London. However, they more than rose to the challenge as they stunned their hosts with three goals that received no reply from a shell-shocked Lyon.
Talismanic midfielder and scorer of the second Declan Rice claimed that Lyon's earlier taunts "came back to bite them" and served as the perfect motivation for David Moyes' side. The England international explained: "Obviously (Moussa) Dembele winking at the camera in the first leg and then their Twitter admin somehow saying they don't know how they're not going to get through.
"So those things come back to bite you and we stayed quiet, put in a performance and now West Ham are in the semis. What more do we want?"
Rice is referring to Dembele's first-leg wink to his own bench after Aaron Cresswell was red-carded for pulling on the French forward's shirt as he was through on goal. The incident had shades of Cristiano Ronaldo at the 2006 World Cup, with plenty of West Ham fans and players alike feeling like Dembele made the most of minimal contact.
The Hammers midfielder also addressed a tweet posted before Lyon's official account hours before kick-off on Thursday evening. Responding to a post from the Europa League account asking fans who will reach the semi's, Lyon wrote: "Are you really asking like there's a chance we don't go through?"
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Rice actually replied to the Tweet after the game and wrote: "This aged well," and followed by a cry-laughing and thumbs-up emoji. Lyon received a rather mystic warning from the Hammers boss in the wake of the first-leg when Moyes was asked for his views on Dembele's wink.
"This game has got a strange way of coming back to catch you, you just never know," the Scotsman claimed. "That's why when you talk about people being down and reacting in certain ways, that can sometimes come back at different times in different ways. Football has a strange way of coming back to get you."
Speaking after the second-leg win, Moyes praised his players for their resilience: "The players stuck at it, never gave up, got a goal in front before we conceded. I don't think anyone, when they were putting questions to me earlier, thought we were going to make it tonight."
