Dinamo Zagreb ace Rasmus Lauritsen singled out Michail Antonio when discussing the strength of West Ham this afternoon, as quoted by Football.London.
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The Hammers squad travelled out to Croatia today with their opening Europa League game kicking off tomorrow night against Zagreb.
David Moyes will be desperate for his team to get off to a winning start against Dinamo Zagreb.
West Ham will have to work hard for it though, especially considering how notoriously partisan the crowd are at the Stadion Maksimir.
Zagreb have some very good players and they are very hard to beat at home. The Hammers have a lot of good players as well. There isn’t one Zagreb player who would walk into our team.
And it is clear that the Croatians are wary of West Ham.
Dinamo Zagreb ace raves about Michail Antonio
Rasmus Lauritsen, a centre-back, will come head-to-head with the 31-year-old Hammers ace, if he starts tomorrow of course.
And the 25-year-old spoke very highly of Antonio this afternoon:
“It is always physical football that they play in England. A lot of top players play there and it is physical and for sure it will be a physical game tomorrow. Always when you meet opponents you haven’t met before you try to prepare. He’s a very good player (Antonio), he’s physical and he’s had a good period. For me, I always want to get the biggest challenges possible and this is going to be a great challenge. It’s going to be fun fighting with him.”
If Moyes does start Micky, the Zagreb centre-half will be in for a really tough evening.
The fact that Antonio is banned for Sunday’s Premier League clash with Manchester United means that he’s all but certain to start against Zagreb tomorrow.
Every single Premier league Michail Antonio goal:
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And whoever comes out on top in the battle between Lauritsen and Antonio could end up defining the outcome of the game.