RABID VIENNA
West Ham 2 Rapid Vienna 0
The last time West Ham won a game at home in a European competition was against NK Osijek on 16th September 1999, in a game in which Javier Margas dyed his hair claret and blue. That night West Ham won 3-0 with goals from Paulo Wanchope, Paolo Di Canio and Frank Lampard. Twenty-two years later would it be a different story? Tonight West Ham will take the lead with a goal from the feet of a man who was not born then, Declan Rice. But before then West Ham take to the pitch with a side similar to the one who won at Old Trafford in the League Cup last Wednesday. It’s the same day a new statue has been unveiled in the grounds of the stadium by Geoff Hurst, and it features him, Bobby Moore and Martin Peters modelled from a photograph taken after the club had won the European Cup Winners Cup at Wembley in 1965, almost exactly a year before England won the World Cup at the same venue. Nice timing if you can get it.
Declan Rice and Mark Noble start together tonight for the first time in a while, and Craig Dawson is back in the starting XI. So what does that mean, exactly? Does David Moyes take this European competition seriously? Is this hubris about to dump the Hammers out of the cup?
Declan Rice leaps like a salmon at the far post in the minute to head Aaron Cresswell’s free kick against the inside the foot of the post and out again to safety. Just four minutes later and Craig Dawson gets on the end of a brilliant corner from Cresswell but he now hits the other post with a colossal, but ultimately off target, header.
Two minutes later the goal comes from Declan Rice who gets on the end of Michail Antonio’s assist from Yarmolenko’s searching pass. This is good, and it’s two in two in the competition from Rice.
The Rabid Vienna fans react in twentieth century fashion by jumping over the barrier of their section of the ground and charge at the horrified West Ham stewards who thought they were at the ground for a cup of tea and lazy chat with their underpaid mates. To their eternal credit, they throw themselves into the onslaught and hold the ultras back, but they are unable to stop the raining down of plastic bottles seemingly hurled from another decade. West Ham were being welcomed to another side of Europe. How dare they score?
The second half generates another incident (73rd minute) to keep the Austrian fans interested, a disputed penalty after a challenge from Ben Johnson on Grull. Referee Tobias Stieler, who has deemed the challenge illegal, is summoned to the video screen to correct his error, which he does with the usual pomp. The crazies behind the goal are momentarily silenced.
The game finishes with a momentary cushion for West Ham that they have been denied for most of the game as Saïd Benrahma, head down, deep into injury time, takes a pass from Bowen and curls his shot into the corner of the net. Top of the group with six points and four goals scored, without reply.
As for the away fans, the shirtless Emperor Ming lookalike with the sculptured eyebrows seemed to have captured the travelling mood, reflecting on his decision to undertake a sea of expensive covid tests just to witness his team’s mediocre performance on the road.
13 Alphonse Areola, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 31 Ben Johnson, 15 Craig Dawson, 16 Mark Noble (c), 23 Issa Diop, 41 Declan Rice, 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 9 Michail Antonio, 11 Nikola Vlašić
Substitutes: 8 Pablo Fornals, 11 Nikola Vlašić, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 26 Arthur Masuaku
Goalscorers: Declan Rice, Saïd Benrahma
