Revenge is on the menu after West Ham were drawn to face Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League quarter-finals.
They say revenge is a dish best served cold.
Well West Ham have been keeping one in the freezer since last summer for the German league leaders.
The Hammers will play Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of the Europa League last eight tie on Thursday April 11th.
West Ham will then welcome Xabi Alonso’s side to the London Stadium a week later.
David Moyes will be hoping West Ham can perform like they did against Leverkusen’s Bundesliga rivals Freiburg after their record 5-0 European win on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, the competition’s second favourites scraped through against Qarabag.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg against Freiburg, West Ham talked about summoning the ‘spirit of Sevilla’ for the crunch second leg.
That’s after turning around a 1-0 first leg deficit at home at the same stage of the same competition two years ago.
Well now the Hammers need to summon the ghosts of the kings of Lyon.
Bayer Leverkusen trolled West Ham after their rout and now it’s time for Lyon-style revenge.
Hammers fans will remember their side lost 4-0 to Alonso’s pass-masters in pre-season last summer.
Remarkably Bayer Leverkusen are unbeaten since in all competitions.
West Ham were played off the park. But that was before they had made any signings.
After the game Leverkusen took to social media to troll West Ham.
“Are we Massive now West Ham?” Leverkusen’s media team posted alongside a graphic showing the full-time result.
We’ve been here before haven’t we?
When West Ham faced Lyon in the quarter-finals two years ago, Lyon posted on social media saying ‘Like there’s a chance we won’t go through’.
The Hammers and the Ligue 1 side drew the first leg 1-1 and striker Moussa Dembele was famously caught winking to teammates after getting Aaron Cresswell sent off.
Declan Rice made a point of highlighting Lyon’s social post after the draw was made.
And the Dembele incident further infuriated Moyes and his team.
The manager warned Dembele that football has a way of coming back and biting you on the backside.
And how it did.
West Ham won an epic second leg 3-0 to advance to the semi-finals.
And the Hammers brilliantly responded to Dembele and Lyon on social media after that game.
So let’s hope West Ham summon the ghosts of the Kings of Lyon for a similar outcome when we meet cocky Leverkusen next month.
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