The West Ham United faithful may have been a little concerned seeing Konstantinos Mavropanos step up to take their final penalty during the FA Cup fifth-round tie with Brentford on Monday night.
They needn’t have worried.
Completing what was a masterclass in high-pressure penalty taking, the big centre-half rattled his spot-kick past Caoimhin Kelleher and into the top corner of the Brentford net, ensuring that West Ham United will face Leeds with a spot in the FA Cup semi-finals – and a trip to Wembley – up for grabs.
We win it on pens 😎 Do you fancy us to beat Leeds and book a trip to Wembley?!
And, in doing so, Konstantinos Mavropanos became the first player to score a winning penalty for the Hammers since Said Benrahma against Manchester City in October 2021.
On a night when West Ham ended their ten-year absence from the FA Cup last-eight, Mavropanos ended their five-year wait for a penalty shoot out triumph.
West Ham United beat Brentford thanks to Konstantinos Mavropanos’ penalty
Not that the Hammers have a reputation for bungling spot-kicks. This is only their second penalty shoot-out since that 0-0 draw with Man City was decided by Benrahma from 12 yards, albeit they lost the other one against second-tier Blackburn Rovers in the EFL Cup.
While Axel Disasi turned in another ‘brilliant’ performance at the London stadium though – coming within a whisker of a quite remarkable winner in the dying embers of extra time – a resurgent Mavropanos deserved his moment in the limelight.
So too did Alphonse Areola.
Areola saw Dango Ouattara’s pathetic Panenka coming a mile away. A nice moment for a goalkeeper who was dropped for Mads Hermansen a month ago.
Nuno Espirito Santo ‘so happy’ as Wembley trip looms
“I’m so happy. I think, honestly, the London Stadium has been huge for us,” Nuno beamed at full-time. “You can see the atmosphere, you can see the support of the fans, so they deserve this moment of happiness.
“I think the boys worked really hard for it, and we deserve to go through. We play with such purpose. In normal time and in extra time, we’ve been a team pushing.
“I believe we started the game well. We had some issues on defence, but second half, again, we started well, we were in front.
“We had chances to put the game to bed, something that we have to do, but overall, we were consistent, dominant, and then when it comes to penalties, it’s a moment of being spot on with what we’ve been training, and the boys did amazing.”
Captain Jarrod Bowen scored a penalty won by Adama Traore just before half-time and beat Kelleher from 12 yards again in the shootout. Taty Castellanos, Callum Wilson and Tomas Soucek also gave the Brentford keeper little chance with a series of inch-perfect spot-kicks.
“What I saw was, three days prior to the game, before the game in practice, the boys had time to practice [penalties]. And then comes the moment,” Nuno adds.
“You know that the stress is different, but I believe that they were ready to do their job and they did it amazingly.”
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