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.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
PAINFUL VICTORY: Ruud said that felt pain in his rib during the warmup and was put on painkillers so that he could finish the match against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo With the help of painkillers, Casper Ruud overcame a rib ailment to defeat Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets and reach the Madrid Open final on Friday. Ruud is to face Jack Draper, who beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the other semi-final to make his third final of the year. Ruud received treatment on his rib three games into the match and went on to win 6-4, 7-5 on the Caja Magica center court. The 15th-ranked Norwegian saved 15 of the 18 break points he faced against the 21st-ranked Argentine. Ruud said he felt something in his rib during the warmup, just before
RSS