Moyes believes best is yet to come from West Ham ahead of Sevilla tie

West Ham’s Europa League adventure has been fuelled by blood, sweat and tears… but David Moyes believes the best is yet to come from his Champions League-chasers ahead of crunch last-16 clash with Sevilla

  • West Ham are gearing up for a Europa League last-16 showdown with Sevilla
  • The Hammers have made the trip to Spain for the first leg on Thursday night
  • David Moyes expects to win despite Sevilla’s recent Europa League success
  • Moyes is also adamant that the best is yet to come from his group of players 

It’s taken blood – just ask the West Ham supporter walking around with one finger fewer than the rest of us after inadvertently ripping off his digit on the away section’s surrounding fence while celebrating Said Benrahma’s goal in Genk.

Sweat – the team’s performance to secure their first win in a European tie that wasn’t a qualifier since 1999 in Zagreb was breathlessly brilliant. Tears – of laughter when Declan Rice serenaded the squad with a rendition of ‘Rice, Rice Baby’, his own version of the Vanilla Ice hit, in Vienna.

And now it’s taken them to Seville, where David Moyes says West Ham can move a significant step closer to a Europa League final at the very stadium they’ll be gracing on Thursday night.

West Ham’s run to the Europa League last-16 has taken blood, sweat and tears along the way

This last-16 first leg with Sevilla – specialists of this competition after winning it six times – will be a tough tie but Moyes believes his team should win.

‘I expect my players to win – if we play Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, I expect them to win,’ Moyes said. ‘I’m really disappointed when we don’t.

‘I want this to be the new West Ham. The new West Ham that qualifies for Europe. The new West Ham that fills a stadium because the football is good and we have young, exciting players.

‘This time last year I felt Europe was a possibility. Prior to that, we were about avoiding relegation – that was the job. To think of where we have come in one year, from midtable to challenging for Europe, now we’re talking in terms of Champions League football. We have moved a big amount in a short space of time.’

On Thursday night the Hammers are set to face competition specialists Sevilla in Spain

But David Moyes insists he expects his team to win every single match they take part in

A cauldron of noise awaits Moyes and his squad, who are without Jarrod Bowen due to injury. On Wednesday Sevilla slashed the price of the final few tickets remaining for home fans to 30 euros in the hope of constructing a 44,000-strong wall that West Ham must overcome.

A total of 12,000 fans from London are believed to have travelled, though only 3,000 of them will be in the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium’s away end trying to make themselves heard.

This trip also gave 58-year-old Moyes an opportunity to reflect on where his management career has taken him in his second spell with West Ham.

‘I had something to prove when I came back – something to show,’ Moyes said. ‘West Ham didn’t take me the first time, when I felt we’d done enough. We all can get things wrong. I admire them for admitting they got it wrong.

‘I felt I had to drive things on and make sure they saw the best of me. From my point of view, it’s been complete energy from me that I can drive on.

‘The team think they’re doing quite well at the moment, but I think they can do much better. I can see them going to that level more often.’

That will be the manager’s message to his squad ahead of Thursday’s crucial first leg. They’ve got themselves this far but don’t go out there fearing the Europa League specialists – go out there and show why they should be afraid of Moyes’s Champions League-chasing West Ham.




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