HENCE, WILT THOU LIFT UP OLYMPIAKOS?
West Ham 1 Olympiakos 0
The owner of Olympiakos is the same guy who owns Nottingham Forest. Evangelos Marinakis. The odds would have been long at the beginning of the season for him to find a club that would play both his sides over just four days in a domestic and an international competition. But here come West Ham United.
The home side have eight straight home wins in European competition to their name, but defeat in Athens a fortnight ago proved that all Onassis is not necessarily plain sailing. Olympiakos have won the Super Greek League 47 times, which may make that league something of a one horse town, but is not an unimpressive stat.
West Ham take the game by the scruff of the bridle early on, and Benrahma twice digs out chances from the left to bring out the best of Alexandros Paschalakis.
Assist king James Ward Prowse twice plays inswinging corners that drop perfectly onto the head of Nayef Aguerd, who puts the first to the keeper’s right, and heads the second to the keeper’s left, but both wide. And this is all in the first half an hour.
As the half drags on, Hammers look like they are running out of ideas about how they might breach this stubborn Greek defence. Having scored eighteen goals from set pieces in 2022-23, West Ham suddenly seem unable to fashion anything novel from the many set play opportunities they have in the half. Benrahma has another speculative shot turned round the post, and Bowen’s header from the ensuing corner clips a Greek head away for yet another Ward Prowse corner which Aguerd heads to the keeper’s right, but again frustratingly just wide.
The second half asks even more patience from Hammers, and just as we are beginning to think that it might not happen, a piece of West Ham magic appears out of nowhere when what looks like another frustrated move sees the ball turned back to Ward-Prowse, who chips a perfect through ball in to Paquetá, which the Brazilian volleys home. The eager assistant referee’s flag calls it offside, but even to the naked eye, VAR will surely correct the errant decision. Somehow the procedure takes three minutes, but it gives Paquetá the chance to double back and shamelessly celebrate again in front of the Olympiakos’ fans.
Suddenly the Athenians look as though they might try to score to get something out of the game, and though Fabianski drops the loose ball in front of Ayoub El Kaabi, he recovers to steer the striker’s header wide. No matter that an offside decision is given, as the Fabs couldn’t have known, and didn’t take that chance.
Ward-Prowse has one final set play cross to turn in six minutes from time, but Mavropanus’ header is agonisingly wide. On any other day he would have chalked up six or seven assists, but tonight he will have to settle for the one vital one, which proves to have set up the winner for Paquetá.
A late flurry sees Camara hit the back post with a chance from a few yards out, but Hammers deservedly ride their luck, recording a ninth successive European home win. It transpires that Freiburg have won their parallel game over Backa Topola 5-0, but will have to be satisfied with second spot, as Hammers have superiority over them as a result of the head-to-head rule.
1 Lucas Fabianski (captain), 5 Vladimir Coufal, 33 Emerson, 15 Konstantinos Mavropanus, 19 Edson Álvarez, 27 Nayef Aguerd, 7 James Ward-Prowse, 11 Lucas Paquetá, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 14 Mohammed Kudus, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes: 28 Tomas Souček, 17 Maxwel Cornet, 45 Davin Mubama
Goalscorer: Lucas Paquetá
