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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Simon Collings

West Ham players party into night after Europa Conference League win - and skip first flight home

A party, a parade and a wedding — no wonder Mark Noble predicts the West Ham players are unlikely to get much sleep over the next few days.

Their celebrations in Prague lasted into the early hours of this morning and will continue through to the weekend.

Triumphant West Ham players were due to fly back from the Czech capital this afternoon for an open-top bus parade in east London this evening.

Then tomorrow they are flying out to Spain for Pablo Fornals’s wedding.

(Michail Antonio/Instagram)

“There’s not going to be much sleep in the next two days,” said West Ham legend and sporting director Noble, who was leading the celebrations in Prague last night.

After players and staff celebrated on the pitch in front of the West Ham fans at the Eden Arena, the party continued back in the dressing room.

Lucas Paqueta and Declan Rice were assigned DJ duties and Brazilian Paqueta led the way with Samba dancing. Rice, who never takes himself too seriously, could not help but join in.

Kurt Zouma was the next to let loose, whipping his shirt off to showcase his moves. Even David Moyes joined in, dancing and singing to the Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).

The music was deafening and Alphonse Areola made sure everyone could hear it, charging around the bowels of the stadium with a huge speaker.

At around 2am local time, the players made their way onto the team bus and back to their hotel. There, they were greeted by fans and, together, they sang Jarrod Bowen’s name.

Inside the hotel were even more supporters, with one fan shouting at Moyes: “David, you beauty!”

The players eventually made their way upstairs to a private party, but only to another rendition of Bowen’s song in the hotel lobby.

As the squad walked into a room full of their friends and family, confetti fell from the ceiling.

Wisely, West Ham staff booked two flights home from Prague today, depending on the result — one at 11am and another at 3pm.

It is no surprise the club decided on the later flight.

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