West Ham break 55-year European record with Europa League win over Freiburg

West Ham have broken the record for the longest unbeaten run in European competition for an English club.

The Irons won 2-1 away at Freiburg on Thursday evening to make it 17 games with defeat across both the Europa Conference League and Europa League.

Lucas Paqueta gave the East Londoners an early lead in Germany, before Roland Sallai equalised for the home side shortly after the break, only for Nayef Aguerd to head the winner home later on.

West Ham’s fans were unable to celebrate the win or the record in person however, due to a ban from UEFA following incidents at last season’s Conference League final triumph in Prague.

Their unbeaten streak began in August 2022, with David Moyes’ side winning 16 of those 17 fixtures.

The previous record had stood since 1968 and was set by Don Revie’s Leeds United before it was matched by Bill Nicholson’s Tottenham in 1972.

Manchester City are also currently on a 16 game unbeaten run in Europe following their 3-1 win at RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

‘Well they [Revie and Nicholson] are names which in their own right are legends and really important to the clubs that they represented in the past,’ Moyes told TNT Sports post-match.

‘When I think back though, there wasn’t the amount of group games that [we] had. They went through sort of knockout games. I’m not sure at that time if there was two European competitions, there probably was.

‘So I don’t want to put myself down here but the level of competition [was tougher].

‘But anyway I’m thrilled that West Ham and myself have got it [the record] but more thrilled that we got the win tonight because it was it was really important to us.’

The Irons are top of Europa League Group A after two rounds and next up face a trip to Olympiacos on 28th October.

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