The outcome of West Ham United’s match against Olympiacos on Thursday night was crucial for manager David Moyes.
After our English-record 17-match unbeaten European run came to an end a fortnight ago in a 2-1 loss to the same opponents in Pireaus, the Irons had a task to maintain their top spot in UEFA Europa League Group A.
They were able to overcome the challenge because of Lucas Paquetá’s volley in the 73rd minute, which ended a close match between a stubborn Olympiacos team that was difficult to beat.
Although Moyes acknowledged that he would have preferred to see more offensive play from his team, he was happy with the final score of 1-0, which keeps the East Londoners in the running for the Europa League knockout stages.
We could have done a few things better, but overall, winning the games in Europe is very important. We were a little gritty.
It really was a tough opponent tonight, as demonstrated at Olympiacos and once more tonight.
After going 17 games without a loss before the most recent match at Olympiacos, we’re back on track with a win.
There was a chance we could have equalised. While it was close and we won 1-0 tonight, the score was 2-1 there. In my opinion, we were the superior team.
They really only had one chance left at the end, in my opinion, so we had the better opportunity. Overall, I felt we got the outcome we deserved because our custodian didn’t have many saves to make.
Although we didn’t play exceptionally well, we were still able to barely make it.
More and better is what I desire.
I’d like us to use more imagination. If I were being really honest, I don’t think we made enough opportunities or chances, and I need to investigate why that was the case. However, I believe we fielded a really attacking team tonight, giving us every chance to succeed.
However, a 1-0 victory is always a positive outcome.
Tonight we had more than fifty thousand of our fans in attendance.
For a group stage game, this crowd is ideal. Look, we’ve had some amazing evenings here; Seville will always be the standard in my mind. We hope to spend more evenings like that.
