West Ham United on Thursday shrugged off their dismal English Premier League start to ease into the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage with a 6-1 aggregate rout of Viborg FF in their playoff.
Already 3-0 up from last week’s first leg in London, West Ham secured victory with striker Gianluca Scamacca, Algeria international Said Benrahma and Czech Republic star Tomas Soucek on target in Denmark.
The English side were barely threatened, but goalkeeper Alphonse Areola had to be alert with a double save to keep out Jay-Roy Grot and Justin Lonwijk.
Photo: AP
“It’s massive for us to be in the group stage. We’re fighting every year to get European football for our people and we couldn’t miss this opportunity,” Spanish midfielder Pablo Fornals told the club’s Web site. “We knew that coming here the atmosphere would be tough, and it wasn’t easy to come here and play against a crowd that probably knew it was hard to qualify, but were still here to support their team with everything. It wasn’t easy.”
“Viborg were a very good team too. They had really good players with qualities. The throw-ins from the left were difficult to defend and they had a big forward too,” he said.
The Irons went into yesterday’s draw for the group stage, but would then turn their attention to resuscitating their Premier League campaign.
They are currently bottom of the table having lost all three of their opening games without scoring a goal.
Villarreal, who were Europa League champions in 2020-2021, also made the group stage with a 2-0 win at Hajduk Split for a 6-2 aggregate triumph.
Alfonso Pedraza and Samuel Chukwueze scored the goals for the Spanish side, who made the UEFA Champions League semi-finals last season.
In the UEFA Europa League, Heart of Midlothian were beaten 1-0 at home by Swiss champions Zurich, who went through 3-1 on aggregate.
Fabian Rohner scored the only goal of the second leg as the Scottish side were left to regret a red card handed out to midfielder Jorge Grant 10 minutes into the second half.
Despite the defeat, Hearts’ European adventure is not over as they now drop into the Europa Conference League group stage instead.
PFC Ludogorets of Bulgaria needed a last-gasp extra-time penalty by Olivier Verdon to secure a 3-3 draw and a 4-3 aggregate win over Zalgiris in Lithuania after trailing three times on the night.
Fenerbahce were the night’s biggest winners, a 4-1 victory over Austria Vienna giving the Turkish side a 6-1 win over two legs.
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