Controversy at the London Stadium
And here’s what happened in the other Europa League semi-final first leg:
That’s it for tonight’s blog. I’ll leave you with Jacob Steinberg’s from the London Stadium. Thanks for your company - goodnight.
Michail Antonio’s verdict
“It probably wasn’t our best performance, but one thing we like about this tournament is that it’s two legs. We’ve been in this situation before with Sevilla. We need to go there, put in the work, and you never know.
“It was a slow start, 1-0 down, but we got control of the game and created quite a few chances. It’s still all to play for; it’s not over. This week we haven’t done it, but next week we will.
“I’ve been very frustrated at myself for not scoring goals. People have been saying, ‘You’re playing well, don’t worry’, but goals are what I’m playing for. I’m now a striker and that’s what people want from me.
“The overriding feeling after the game is that we’re in it to win it. Another game to go, we’re gonna win it, and we’re gonna win everything.”
RB Leipzig 1-0 Rangers was the score in the other semi-final first leg. You can read all about that with Nick Ames.
Eintracht Frankfurt are favourites to reach the Europa League final, though they will know this tie isn’t over. That was an excellent game, which could have gone either way. West Ham hit the woodwork three times, Frankfurt once, and both teams missed other big chances.
There was some superb individual performances from Borre, Knauff, Kamada, Bowen, Benrahma and Antonio among others, while a previously subdued Declan Rice was monstrous in the last 20 minutes.
Updated
Full time: West Ham 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Peep! Peep! Peep!
90+3 min The player of the match, Rafael Borre, is replaced by Ragnar Ache.
90+2 min: Bowen hits the bar again! What an incredible effort! Rice’s cross from the left came towards Bowen at shoulder height, so he improvised an outrageous overhead kick that beat Trapp and clattered off the underside of the bar. He caught that right off the sweet spot, even though he was in mid-air at the time.
The ball eventually goes behind for a corner, which is headed over from close range by Soucek. He couldn’t quite get over the ball.
Updated
90+1 min Three minutes of added time.
90 min “Hi Rob,” says Peter Oh. “Re: 84 min. Belting the ball in your own face? It’s heartening to see top-level football occasionally stoop to U8 standards every once in a while.”
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Norwich vs Wimbledon, 1993. Proper goal-mouth scramble!pic.twitter.com/EwxrtwEb3Q
— 90s Football (@90sfootball) August 3, 2017
89 min: Chance for Bowen! Rice, who has been sensational in the last 15 minutes, lofts a superb pass down the left towards Benrahma. He looks up and crosses towards Bowen, whose flying near-post header goes over the top. A corner is given, though I’m not sure it should have been. No matter: It passes without incident.
88 min Frankfurt are keeping West Ham at arm’s length. This would be another outstanding away result for them, though it wouldn’t be the end of the world for West Ham. A scoreline like this feels a lot different without the away goals rule.
86 min Zouma is limping after that Kostic challenge. I think he’s okay. While he is being treated we see a replay of Benrahma’s spectacular shot in the 68th minute, which did indeed hit the angle of post and bar.
85 min The increasingly influential Rice finds Cresswell, whose cross goes behind for a corner. Cresswell takes it himself but Kostic gets in front of Zouma to clear.
Updated
84 min The West Ham fans appeal for a penalty, thinking Toure has kicked the ball against his own hand. He almost did, but in fact he belted it into his own face.
81 min Hinteregger is booked for a lunge at Bowen. It’s getting a bit niggly out there.
80 min Sow has been booked for something or other. Don’t ask me, I haven’t clue, but my money’s on dissent.
79 min: Kamada hits the post! A big let-off for West Ham. Borre - he’s a proper player, this lad - played a fine angled pass to release Kamada, one v one with Dawson. He opened his body and sidefooted a shot that took a crucial deflection off Dawson’s trailing leg and hit the face of the far post.
Updated
77 min Benrahma sprays a half chance wide, and then it threatens to kick off. Hinteregger was down and Frankfurt weren’t happy that West Ham played on. Rice sprayed a majestic 60-yard crossfield pass that was controlled beautifully by Benrahma on the left side of the area. He cut inside Tuta but then launched the ball high and wide of the far post.
Updated
76 min Cresswell plays a one-two with Benrahma, who flicks the ball superbly behind his standing leg. Cresswell moves into the area and guides a low cross that is kicked clear in the six-yard box, I think by Hinteregger.
75 min This is a decent spell for West Ham, with Benrahma looking very sprightly since coming on.
72 min Bowen turns Toure superbly, 35 yards from goal, and suddenly West Ham are three on two. He tries to release Benrahma to his left, but the angle isn’t right and Tuta intercepts the pass.
Updated
70 min Here’s the goal from Daichi Kamada that has put Frankfurt ahead. The return ball from Jesper Lindstrom to Djibril Sow was delicious.
Frankfurt re-take the lead and it's a beautiful team move that produced the goal 👏
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 28, 2022
Daichi Kamada taps in the rebound after a great save from Areola in the West Ham goal.#UEL pic.twitter.com/m78WCnI92p
Updated
68 min: So close from Benrahma! Rice, who has had a relatively quiet game, hammers the free-kick into the wall. West Ham keep the ball alive and Benrahma makes room for an extravagant curling shot from 25 yards that flashes just wide. It may even have brushed the angle of post and bar on its way past.
Updated
68 min Benrahma beats Tuta with a stepover and is flattened. Free-kick to West Ham on the left wing...
67 min A West Ham change: Said Benrahma replaces Manuel Lanzini. Fornals has moved infield to play as the no10.
66 min Bowen’s cross from the right is headed up in the air and drops towards Fornals, who bobbles a volley wide from the left side of the area.
64 min West Ham just haven’t got going in the second half. If you offered them 2-2 now I’m sure they’d take it, especially with the away goals rule a thing of the past.
62 min A change for Frankfurt. Jens Petter Hauge replaces the injured Jesper Lindstrom, who has pulled a hamstring.
60 min The indefatigable Antonio rumbles down the left to win another corner for West Ham. Fornals drops it under the bar and Trapp, not for the first time tonight, grabs it with authority.
58 min Borre has been a slippery figure all night - ostensibly Frankfurt’s no9, but always dropping off Dawson and Zouma into pockets of space. He looks an outstanding player.
Updated
56 min West Ham have drawn it once; now they have to go out and draw it again.
Updated
West Ham wanted offside but the goal has been given. Sow played a devastatingly incisive give-and-go with Borre Lindstrom and forced an outstanding save from Areola. But all Areola could do was palm the ball to Kamada, who tapped it into the empty net. Kamada was just behind Sow when he took the shot, so the goal stands. The return ball from Lindstrom to Sow was just brilliant.
Updated
GOAL! West Ham 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt (Kamada 54)
Frankfurt are back in front!
52 min That Soucek chance aside, West Ham have struggled to get out since half time.
49 min Rice finds Antonio on the left. He looks up and floats a cross towards Soucek, who volleys into the ground and well wide from the edge of the area. It wasn’t an easy chance, but he did have space and time to watch the ball onto his right foot.
49 min Frankfurt have had a lot of the ball at the start of the second half. It’s been a game of quite subtle moodswings.
46 min Peep peep! West Ham begin the second half.
Half-time reading
Half time: West Ham 1-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
That was an excellent, entertaining 45 minutes. The impressive Ansgar Knauff stunned everyone, including himself, by giving Frankfurt after 49 seconds, and it took West Ham a while to get the shock out of their system. When they did, Michail Antonio - who has been West Ham’s best player - equalised from a very good set piece.
Jarrod Bowen hit the post, and Knauff had a decent chance to get his second. It’s been richly enjoyable, at least for the neutral. For the fans of both clubs, I suspect it was among the more miserable 45 minutes of their lives.
45+1 min Bowen’s inswinging corner is clamed with authority by Trapp. We’re into the first and only minute of added time.
45 min Bowen pokes a smart square pass into the area for Soucek, whose shot hits Hinteregger and goes behind for another corner.
Updated
44 min Oh and here’s the West Ham equaliser, which I forgot to post earlier.
WEST HAM ARE LEVEL! 👊
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 28, 2022
Michail Antonio makes sure at the back post!
Set pieces, they are ALWAYS dangerous at set pieces...#UEL pic.twitter.com/cBYCUuVrkP
43 min Fornals’ deep, booming cross is headed wide under pressure by Soucek. A quarter-chance probably.
41 min Those angled runs infield from Knauff have caused West Ham so many problems.
39 min: Chance for Frankfurt! Bowen’s corner is headed away and Frankfurt break dangerously. Borre runs 40 yards and then angles a superb through pass to Knauff, charging infield from the right. Cresswell stretches between Knauff and Areola to make a desperate, brilliant tackle, but Knauff is able to collect the loose ball. He turns back onto his right foot, 15 yards out, and then slices wide.
Updated
38 min Fornals does really well to find a pass to Johnson, whose cross is put behind for a corner. This has been a fascinating, gently seesawing half.
37 min: Chance for Antonio! Toure, trying to play out from the byline, gives the ball straight to Johnson. He slides it into Antonio in the area, but he can’t decide whether to shoot or try to find Lanzini (I think) to his left. In the end he takes a touch and is dispossessed by Hinteregger. Antonio had very little time, but it was still a chance.
36 min Kostic’s cross is calmly chested back to Areola by Cresswell. But this is a good spell for Frankfurt.
35 min Knauff, the 20-year-old on loan from Dortmund, looks a player. His flying cushioned volley finds Rode, who guides the ball out to Kostic on the left. He moves to within 25 yards of the goal but then shoots miles over the bar.
32 min A quiet spell. Frankfurt are trying to slow the game down and then open West Ham up with a sudden change of pace.
29 min A wicked cross from Kostic is put behind for a corner by Cresswell. Kostic’s corner is headed away by Rice, straight back to Kostic, and his follow-up hits Bowen in the sweet spot. After a brief grimace, he’s fine.
26 min: Chance for Frankfurt! The classy Kamada gives Dawson twisted blood on the left of the area but then tries to pick out Borre when he should probably shoot himself. The ball deflects off a West Ham defender and away from Borre.
Updated
26 min Antonio is having one of his European nights out. As well as the goal, his hold-up play has been superb; he looks right in the mood.
23 min Good game this.
This has been a terrific response from West Ham, and inevitably the goal came from a high-class set piece. Lanzini’s precise, curling free-kick was powered back across goal by Zouma, and Michail Antonio stretched in front of Declan Rice to force a volley into the net from close range. Trapp got a decent touch but could only push it into the net.
Updated
GOAL! West Ham 1-1 Frankfurt (Antonio 21)
West Ham have equalised!
Updated
20 min “Peter Schmeichel,” weeps Phil Podolsky. “My all-time favourite keeper. And yet my favourite moment is when he decided to climb atop a pile of guys in Munich. The bad stuff is always more memorable innit.”
For a great keeper, and by god he was that, he made a lot of mistakes.
18 min Bowen’s deep, inswinging cross is kept in well by Fornals, who wins a corner off Knauff. Nothing comes of it.
17 min This is a pretty open game, probably more open than David Moyes would like.
14 min: Bowen hits the post! A great chance for West Ham to equalise. Soucek steered a terrific first-time pass to Bowen, who ran away from Kostic and through on goal. He took a touch and slid a low shot that grazed the boot of the keeper Trapp and deflected onto the post. That was a vital touch from Trapp, not that he knew owt about it.
Updated
13 min West Ham are starting to recover from the shock of that early goal, though Frankfurt are still the more composed team.
10 min Here’s Knauff’s goal.
Frankfurt stun West Ham inside the first 50 seconds 😮
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 28, 2022
Ansgar Knauff latches on to a sensational cross from Filip Kostic to score the opening goal...
A dream start for the German side.#UEL pic.twitter.com/s4TZCQqalS
9 min Lindstrom’s through pass is just too heavy for Knauff, who made a terrific run infield from the right.
8 min Daichi Kamada, the left-sided No10, is picking up the ball in some dangerous positions. He was also involved in the passing move that led to the goal. West Ham need to get their bearings.
7 min It’s been a relaxed, confident start from Frankfurt, though scoring after 49 seconds probably helps.
5 min Lanzini’s outswinging free-kick from the right brushes the head of the stretching Soucek at the far post. You’d expect West Ham to be a threat set-pieces tonight.
Updated
4 min Calm down everyone, there’s still 176 minutes remaining.
2 min Ansgar Knauff is having a helluva knockout stage.
Ansgar Knauff's sensational strike against Barcelona wins Goal of the Week! 👏🤩@Heineken | #UELGOTW | #UEL pic.twitter.com/5fK001xDJG
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) April 8, 2022
Dear me, what a start. Frankfurt moved the ball neatly on the left before Borre flipped an excellent curling cross to the far post. Knauff got the wrong side of Fornals, who didn’t see him coming, and headed gleefully back across Areola. Incredible.
Updated
GOAL! West Ham 0-1 Eintracht Frankfurt (Knauff 1)
Eintracht Frankfurt take the lead after 49 seconds!
1 min Peep peep! The Europa League semi-finals are under way.
“Nice to see Sir Trevor Brooking appropriately acknowledged - how he played football like that on those pitches beggared belief even at the time,” says Brian Withington. “Looking back it’s simply astonishing.”
I think the change in pitches makes it really hard to compare eras. And the fact that, until the late 1990s, GBH was only punishable with a stern warning.
The players stroll onto the field, and into the most wonderful atmosphere. You know it’s a big night when a European game starts in daylight (unless it’s the Europa Conference League qualifying round in mid-July). May the best team win.
Updated
“Through a combination of ridiculously exciting football, the charisma that comes with enjoying a near-mythological status, and some comedy peaks and troughs, Marcelo Bielsa made Leeds really, truly likeable,” says Matt Dony, mistaking this blog for Crystal Palace v Leeds three days ago. “This was as astonishing achievement. And, possibly, such a strange state of affairs that it rather masked other, slightly-less-amazing-but-still-reasonably-surprising achievements.
“Moyes is no Bielsa, and West Ham are no Leeds. They might not be as recklessly exciting, but they are likeable. Weirdly likeable. (Despite Zouma’s best efforts, obviously.) What David Moyes has achieved this season, in the league and in Europe, is brilliant. And they’ve done it by playing the best football that group of players could realistically be expected to play. ‘That’s what I do. I win’, said Moyes. And how we laughed. David, I apologise.”
“Welcome,” says Simon McMahon. “Maybe West Ham should just have had Joel Grey playing on a loop on their big screen, giving it the full ‘Willkommen, Bienvenue, VEL- come’ for all fans. Here’s to some Cabaret-style football tonight …”
I have no idea what this means, as it’s a reference from the last 15 years, but it’s from MBM stalwart Simon McMahon so I’m sure it’s fine. Either that or I’ll have a P45 under my nose by the time you read this.
“I knew you were a United fan, but I could be forgiven to think you were actually West Ham United, reading with pride how you spoke of the transformation under the Moyesiah in the preamble,” says Rob Lewis. “I was at Wembley on that last great day for us in 1980, so am I excited tonight? I’ll leave that to your imagination.”
I don’t think the imagination needs to do much work here.
David Moyes’ pre-match thoughts
“It’s great for us [to have Kurt Zouma back], because he’s been so important all season. He’s trained most of the week and we need him - it’s a big game. We want to get a good result tonight to take to Germany next week. We enjoyed winning the semi-final - sorry the quarter-final! - and now we want to win this semi-final.”
“Hi Rob,” says Matt Burtz. “As a (relative) newcomer to English football, tell me, did Tony Yeboah score any goals in his career that didn’t involve world-class touch, control, and technique? That pass to himself in the clip was absolutely sumptuous.”
I’m sure he did, though all I can remember are the bangers. I was going to say he was the football equivalent of a great singles band, but maybe that’s unfair. This is a great piece on Yeboah from the archive.
“I’m a German teacher,” begins Christopher Keelan somewhat ominously. “Please tell West Ham to spell Willkommen correctly on the scoreboard. It’s not too much to ask.”
That’s not ideal. Although I’ve seen worse on Richard Osman’s House of Games.
class, adj.
High quality; outstanding ability or distinction; elegance or refinement of style, taste, or manner.
West Ham 🆚 Frankfurt in a European semi-final? We've been here before! ⏪
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 28, 2022
The legendary Trevor Brooking helped the Hammers reach the European Cup Winners' Cup final back in 1976 🏆
An absolutely delicious finish 😍#UEL pic.twitter.com/KVIVddSZ75
More pre-match reading
The winners of this tie will play RB Leipzig or Glasgow Rangers in the BLOODY FINAL. You can follow that game the night with Nick Ames.
Jacob Steinberg’s big-match preview
Team news: Kurt Zouma starts!
David Moyes has pulled a fast one: Kurt Zouma is fit and starts for West Ham. Well, he starts. That’s a huge boost for them. Zouma’s return is one of two changes from the quarter-final victory in Lyon. Aaron Cresswell returns to the side after suspension, with Issa Diop (injured) and Vladimir Coufal (on the bench) dropping out.
Frankfurt also make two changes from their glorious win at the Camp Nou a fortnight ago. Tuta and Djibril Sow replace the suspended pair of Kristijan Jakic and Evan Ndicka.
West Ham (4-2-3-1) Areola; Johnson, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Lanzini, Fornals; Antonio.
Substitutes: Fabianski, Randolph, Alese, Coufal, Masuaku, Fredericks, Kral, Noble, Chesters, Vlasic, Benrahma, Yarmolenko.
Eintracht Frankfurt (3-4-2-1) Trapp; Tuta, Hinteregger, Toure; Knauff, Sow, Rode, Kostic; Kamada, Lindstrom; Borre.
Substitutes: Grahl, Horz, Hrustic, Lammers, Hasebe, Ache, Chandler, Hauge, Da Costa, Lenz, Barkok, Goncalo Paciencia.
Referee Serdar Gozubuyuk (Netherlands).
Updated
Preamble
The Champions League is as good as football gets, maybe as good as it has ever been. But if you want charm, romance, great stories and a refreshing lack of entitlement, the Europa League is where it’s at. Last year, Villarreal won the first major honour in their 98-year history by beating Manchester United in the final. And on 18 May in Seville, the spiritual home of the Europa League, one of West Ham, Eintracht Frankfurt, RB Leipzig and Rangers will succeed them.
Whoever wins, it’ll be a great story. Three of the teams haven’t won a European trophy for at least 40 years; Leipzig didn’t even exist until 2009. But as this is a West Ham v Eintracht Frankfurt blog, let’s concentrate on them. West Ham haven’t won a major trophy since the FA Cup in 1980. (Don’t play silly buggers and start talking about the 1999 Intertoto Cup, not on a night like tonight.) And they haven’t played in a European semi-final since 1975-76, when - of all the gin joints - they beat Eintracht Frankfurt before losing to Anderlecht in a pulsating final.
When West Ham last played in a European semi-final, on 14 April 1976, none of the following existed: the ZX81 (duh), VHS players, CD players, Hungry Hippos, Hungry Horace, Ferrero Rocher, Benedict Cumberbatch, Danny Dyer, the Black & Decker DustBuster, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!, live blogs of football matches, live bloggers using the internet to find out whether I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! existed in May 1976.
Two years ago today, as we all stockpiled toilet roll and foie gras and started using phrases like “Project Restart” with a straight face, West Ham were 16th in the Premier League. Only goal difference was keeping them out of the relegation places. Now, 730 days later, they are three games away from winning a European trophy. David Moyes, ostensibly admired but still insidiously disparaged, doesn’t get nearly enough credit for creating what is surely, with a respectful nod to the Paolo Di Canio era, the best West Ham team since the Boys of 86. If they win this tournament, they might go down as the best West Ham team since the 1966 World Cup.
***
In Britain, Eintracht Frankfurt are best known as Real Madrid’s dance partners in the legendary European Cup final of 1960. As that was 62 years ago, we should maybe provide an update on their progress. Of late they have been an upper mid-table Bundesliga side, though they came fifth last season - their highest finish since the Yeboah years* in the early 1990s - which is why they are competing in this thing of ours.
Any unconscious feeling that this is a favourable draw for West Ham should be erased by a cursory look at the quarter-final score: Barcelona 2-3 Eintracht Frankfurt (agg: 3-4), especially as the margin of defeat flattered Barcelona. Even so, it would be a bald-faced lie to suggest that West Ham would prefer be playing Barcelona tonight. Both teams will understandably fancy their chances of making it through.
Frankfurt’s last final was in 1979-80, when they beat Borussia Monchengladbach on away goals to win the old Uefa Cup. They reached the semi-finals of this competition three years ago, losing on penalties to the eventual winners Chelsea. Luka Jovic was their star then, though he has since disappeared into the Black Hole de Bernabeu.
The best players in this side are probably the Serbian winger Filip Kostic and the Colombian forward Rafael Borre, though I haven’t played Football Manager in a while so don’t quote me on that. Their coveted French defender Evan Ndicka is suspended for the first leg after being sent off against Barcelona.
West Ham will probably be without their own French defender, Kurt Zouma, as well as Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna. Zouma has been doing some light training and may make the squad, though it’ll be a major surprise if he’s in the starting XI.
With Craig Dawson likely to be the only recognised centre-back available, David Moyes will probably go with the extra protection of a back three. That would also allow West Ham to match up with Frankfurt’s 3-4-2-1 system. We’ll have team news shortly.
Kick off 8pm.
* Look at this goal by the way, and yeah that is Peter Schmeichel he beats.
