West Ham boss David Moyes reacts to avoiding Barcelona in Europa League semi

David Moyes insists West Ham still face a massive challenge to win the Europa League despite avoiding Barcelona after the Spanish giants were knocked out by Frankfurt.

While the east Londoners were swatting aside Lyon with an excellent display in their own Europa League quarter-final second leg, a rampant Frankfurt side were running riot at Camp Nou, also netting three times to pull off the upset of the night.

Barca had been on a 15-game unbeaten run prior to Thursday’s match and were favourites to win the tournament, but crashed out despite netting two scarcely deserved consolation goals in stoppage time.

West Ham will host Frankfurt in two weeks’ time, before travelling to Germany for the second leg a week later, and Moyes will not be taking the ninth-placed Bundesliga side lightly.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Moyes said: ‘I think the players will all be looking forward to playing whoever. I think we’ll give whoever a game, and it’s Frankfurt as we know now.

‘That will not be easy. I actually think these parts of the draw have not gone in our favour, like we’re away from home tonight in the second leg and we’ve got that in the next round.

‘So I don’t particularly think the draws have been that favourable to us as far as getting the away tie at your own place [in the second leg].

‘By the way, we’ll have a great night at the London Stadium again when they come because it’s great for West Ham, seeing the level of the football, the teams.

‘I just feel it’s been a monumental period for us to get to the semi-final of a European competition and I hope we can keep going and I hope we’re talking about a final soon.’

Moyes also discovered what had happened in the other quarter-finals during his press conference and seemed surprised that RB Leipzig had managed to win away at Atalanta.

‘How did the other game go tonight?’ he asked reporters. ‘Did Atalanta win the other game? Leipzig beat them? Did they?! Wow! And Rangers are through? Oh wow! Great for Rangers, fantastic.’

Spaniard Pablo Fornals was also asked about the semi-final tie against Frankfurt, and whether he might have preferred to return to his homeland to take on Barcelona.

He replied: ‘Well in this moment, everyone who is in the semi-finals deserves it. So I don’t really care [who we’re playing] against just as long as we are all together I think we have big chances to play against every team.

‘We showed everyone what we are doing in the Premier League for the past two seasons. So I think right now everything is 50/50.’

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