Moyes reaches new West Ham high after praising ‘resilience’ that earned ‘incredible result’
David Moyes described West Ham’s win over Sevilla as “incredible” after praising the “resilience” his side showed to overcome such a strong side.
West Ham are into the quarter-finals of the Europa League after a 2-1 aggregate win over Sevilla. Thanks to a header from Tomas Soucek, they matched the Spaniard’s 1-0 win from the first leg to take the game to extra time, in which Andriy Yarmolenko scored the decisive goal.
It continues their impressive European journey – and in quite some style too, by beating the competition’s most successful club. It is further proof of the progress they have made under Moyes.
He has overseen a range of achievements, such as leading them away from the relegation zone a few years ago to becoming a European side. The win over Sevilla is among his proudest moments.
Moyes told BT Sport: “This will be as high as we’ve had. We’ve had other nights. Avoiding relegation was an incredible high but thankfully we’ve moved on from that.
“Beating a serial winner of this competition made it a bit more special.
“They just keep going. You could see the resilience in them. We keep on going.
“For the first 20 minutes we were the better side without creating many chances. They became stronger before half-time.
“The message was we knew we had to keep hanging in. That was more like it tonight. In the second half our intensity was great until 70 minutes then it dropped off. We picked up again in extra time and kept at it.”
Moyes hoping to build
He continued: “We’ve not got the trophy yet. There are still tough games to go.
“Nights like this really help you build. I thought Sevilla were probably the favourites for the tournament. For us to beat them over two legs is an incredible result.
“At the start we were trying to avoid relegation. The Czech boys have been fantastic for us.
“You’ve seen the improvement of Michail Antonio. Declan Rice has come on. Players like [Aaron] Cresswell have improved. Craig Dawson does a great job.”
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Antonio eyes Europa League trophy
For forward Antonio, this competition presents West Ham with a genuine chance to win a trophy. What’s more, this was one of the most memorable nights of his career.
Antonio told BT Sport: “Unbelievable. This season is like a dream come true. This is the first time in Europe for me. I’ve become West Ham’s Premier League top scorer. We’re just here enjoying our football.
“We dominated. We always believed in ourselves. From the first half we were on them creating chances. [We thought] keep doing what we’re doing and we’d get the win.
“Andriy Yarmolenko is such a lovely guy. I can’t imagine what he’s going through. He’s got a finishing touch now. Hopefully he can keep doing it.
“I came off Sunday a bit disappointed. Thank God it was a small injury and nothing big and I managed to play 120 tonight. I felt my calf tighten up.
“I’ve been here seven years and the only atmosphere close to this was the last day at the Boleyn Ground. The fans roared all the way through, backing us. They were the 12th man. I’ll give the win to them, they were the ones who did it for us.
“We fear nobody. We play in the Premier League and it doesn’t matter who we play, we try to get three points. We’re in this to win it. We’re not just here to take part. Why can’t we win it?”
West Ham will find out their opponents for the quarter-finals on Friday.
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