ONCE AGAIN, WITH FANS
SC Freiburg 1 West Ham 0
Pablo Fornals and Thilo Kehrer have dropped off the squad list since being in the starting XI for the group game in Germany between these clubs five months ago in early October 2023. Tonight their starting places are taken by Kurt Zouma and Emerson, both scorers or crucial goals in the last two matches against Everton and Brentford.
Tonight is about avoiding a ninety-minute elimination, and preserving the route to the last eight by the time next week’s return match is over. For that, as we have seen previously, even a single goal defeat does not take significant steps towards settling the tie, though tonight Hammers will skurely be disappointed with anything less than a draw.
The weather is the main difference for this outing, the cloudy and damp conditions identical to those at home. Hammers fans are in good spirits and have had a relatively quiet couple of days in the town, their number marginally compromised by a strike at Frankfurt airport. Car hire firms have been overwhelmed by desperate fans grabbing a last minute rental car to take on the impossibly gruelling autobahn hike across Germany. Thankfully a local start time of 9pm means they still have half a chance of making it.
I contemplate for a moment the dark possibility that this could be West Ham’s last foray into a European stadium for many years. I casually dismiss the thought as one of yesterday’s disbelievers. This team had been built by the Moyesiah and his mighty back room bravados. This brave bunch names amongst their jewellery the Paquetá, the Mavropanos, the Álvarez and golden boot finisher Bowen, not to mention the sturdy gloves of Areola, whose save v Lyon in the away tie two seasons back, set up a superb 3-0 victory there. There will be more European adventures in 2024!
Except we start with Fabianski tonight, his selection fashioned in the modern world of rotation. I look out at the team as they assemble for the first XI photograph on the pitch. The German crowd, not as boisterous as the Frankfurt ultras, are still a noise with their pre-match chants and fervent flag waving. The atmosphere is electric and warns of the powerful challenge ahead. The club have a sketchy history in this competition, and will be looking to extend their tenure towards the Dublin final in May.
I watched Freiburg battle out a 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich last Friday, a game that they might ordinarily shave been expected to lose as a matter of routine. Was it the distant Ruropean lights that kept their play alive until the 87th minute when they deservedly secured an unexpected Bundesliga point?
The match is underway and the caution on each side is palpable. One of the few teams that can play this cautious approach successfully are Manchester City. All others that aspire tend to get found out, and tonight the lack of genuine opportunities for the Hammers in the first half is slightly concerning. My optimism, never a great guide to any footballing contest, is waning fast.
Freiburg target Paquetá routinely, to the extent that the Brazilian gets in the ear of the referee once too often and gets himself booked. James Ward-Prowse is not the captain but monitors the issue, as does Moyes, calling regularly from the bench to keep Paquetá from the second yellow.
It’s a promising start in any case, with Souček pushing up and looking more the European hope with Vladimir Coufal than anyone else in the side in this first half. Bowen gets a couple of chances in the first half, but snatches at them rather than take that extra half second that his skill allows him. West Ham enter this game as the top scorers in this season’s Europa League.
The second half is the same kind of tentative second third to second third with the odd venture into the last third, but still no goals. As the game progresses, it’s beginning to look as though Moyes has got this one right. Paquetá has been almost invisible, but Hammers have made chances, two very late in the game from superb deep inswinging corners by James Ward-Prowse, the second of which Mavropanos heads against Atubolu’s left hand post.
With twenty minutes to go, Streich brings on Weisshaupt and Gregoritch for Freiburg, and within ten minutes Weisshaupt threads the ball through to Gregoritch who evades Zouma to slot the ball home. Unbelievable. How has that happened?
Hammers have ten minutes to save the tie and they begin to show some spirit, but like away at Olympiakos, it looks too little, too late. Antonio comes on and begins to fight out a little possession which finally culminates in a handball appeal in the fourth minute of injury time after Coufal’s cross evades Álvarez but Weisshaupt in his effort to prevent the ball getting to Souček, heads it across his hands. From goal provider to zero in the last seconds. The replay confirms the handball, but despite the referee being called over to the display monitor, and four minutes of perusal, he sticks to his original decision. Not a handball. Extraordinary. Yet another VAR nightmare. After all that, it’s a first leg defeat just like the Europa League last sixteen game at Sevilla in 2022.
Hammers’ fans will expect an improvement in the return second leg at London Stadium next Thursday at the weirdo kick off time of 5.45pm.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 4 Kurt Zouma (captain), 5 Vladimir Coufal, 33 Emerson, 15 Konstantinos Mavropanos, 7 James Ward-Prowse, 10 Lucas Paquetá, 19 Edson Álvarez, 28 Tomas Souček, 14 Mohammed Kudus, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes: 3 Aaron Cresswell, 11 Kalvin Phillips, 9 Michail Antonio
