THE EUROVISION WRONG CONTEST
| Published date | 15 April 2024 |
| Publication title | Daily Star (England) |
PREMIER
WEST HAM
Three days after a late defeat at Bayer Leverkusen left them with a mountain to climb in the Europa League, 57% POSSESSION 4 SHOTS ON 11 SHOTS OFF 527 TOTAL 8 CORNERS 1 OFFSIDE 10 FOULS 0 1 CARDS
David Moyes' depleted side threw away a gol d e n opportunity here.
REF: Stuart Attwell
MAN OF THE
ANDREAS
A win over Fulham would have sent West Ham si x t h, leaving them well placed for a fourth straight year of European competition.
Instead, results elsewhere could soon see them slipping down to 10th after a defeat that was as much about their own shortcomings as Fulham's resourcefulness.
Marco Silva's visitors were compact off the ball and clinical on it as two-goal Andreas Pereira paved the way to an entirely deserved win.
Yet Moyes admitted he was "gutted" by the result as the spotlight shone on his squad's lack of depth (Edson Alvarez looks dejected, circle).
It only takes a couple of absentees and stars on an off day for their performance ceiling to lower.
LEAGUE
With Jarrod Bowen sidelined by a hip injury and Lucas Paqueta producing a rare stinker, the Hammers attack was desperately blunt.
FULHAM 43% TARGET 10 TARGET 8 PASSES 402 3 0 13 2 0
And a centre back pairing of Nayef Aguerd a nd Di n o s Ma v r o p a n o s never appeared comfortable in the hour before captain Kurt Zouma came off the bench.
ATT: 62,459
MATCH
PEREIRA
Mavropanos, in particular, had a nightmare afternoon as he g i f t e d th e Cottagers their opening goal with a dismal piece of control when he could have simply cleared an Alex Iwobi cross.
Instead, his heavy touch allowed Pereira to gather the loose ball. The Brazilian composed himself, waited for Lukasz Fabianski to emerge off his line and rifled into the roof of the empty net.
But West Ham should have already been in front having wasted a lively start. The pick of their chances arrived at the feet of Michail Antonio with only three minutes on the clock at the London Stadium.
But the Jamaica striker contrived to miss an open goal and blasted well over from eight yards after Vladimir Coufal 's drive forward committed Fulham keeper Bernd Leno.
Mohammed Kudus and Paqueta spurned decent opportunities before Fulham's...
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