Tomas Soucek has told his West Ham team-mates to use their second-leg comebacks versus Sevilla and Lyon as inspiration for more Europa League heroics against Eintracht Frankfurt.
The Hammers are heading to Germany on Thursday for the second leg of their semi-final tie after losing the first match in London 2-1 last week.
West Ham are no strangers to being in this position during the Europa League as they lost the first leg of their last-16 tie to Sevilla, while Lyon held them to a draw at home in the quarter-finals.
David Moyes’ side turned both ties around, though, by winning the second legs in convincing fashion without conceding a goal and Soucek thinks that will fill the team with belief ahead of the trip to Frankfurt.
“This is a good way [to think] as we won both the other games in the second leg,” he told Standard Sport. “We need to do it again now. It gives confidence to us and we know that we can be a better team on Thursday, because we already played against them and we are quite confident.
“But we have to do 100 per cent of us, or maybe more, during the game. We have been showing spirit all season, maybe for two years since Covid started. We have developed a great atmosphere and on Thursday we will need it even more, because it is so difficult but so close to the final.
“Our spirit has to be incredible from the first second, because we know what happened in the first leg, we conceded in 40 seconds. From the first second we have to be ready.”
West Ham have enjoyed a remarkable run in Europe this season and although defeat to Arsenal on Sunday means they can no longer qualify for the Champions League via the Premier League, they can still do so by winning the Europa League.
Soucek has admitted it would be a dream to play in the Champions League and only adds to the potential prize on offer.
“It’s one thing to get to the final, to be so close to get to the trophy of the Europa League and get a medal,” he said. “The second thing is to get into the Champions League. They are two big things that we want, but it is still a really difficult step to go in the second leg.”
