Savvy David Moyes has already done his homework on West Ham’s Europa Conference League semi-final opponents AZ Alkmaar.
West Ham secured their place in the Europa Conference League semi-finals with another memorable comeback, this time to beat Gent on Thursday night.
The Hammers fought back against Sevilla and Lyon to make the semi-finals of the Europa League last year.
And they showed similar spirit and character to do the same against Arsenal in the Premier League at the weekend and now Gent in the quarter-finals.
With the game delicately poised at 1-1 after the first leg in Belgium, David Moyes’ side got off to the worst possible start by going 1-0 down against the counter-attacking Belgians the London Stadium.
But West Ham were the comeback kings again as they levelled before the break and put on a second half show for the fans with a thorough demolition job to take the tie 5-2 on aggregate.
That set up a semi-final against Dutch side AZ Alkmaar after they came back from 2-0 down to see off Anderlecht on penalties in the other tie.
Alkmaar will be another step up in quality for West Ham. They are currently fourth in the Eredivisie table vying for Europa League qualification for next season.
And they have the supposed advantage of playing the second leg at home in Holland.
West Ham’s opponents have already gotten the pleasantries out of the way early next month’s tie with a message to the Hammers.
Given that Anderlecht went into the second leg of their tie with Alkmaar as clear favourites having led 2-0, Moyes and his staff could have been forgiven for anticipating facing their group stage rivals once again.
Savvy David Moyes has already done his homework on West Ham’s Europa Conference League semi-final opponents AZ Alkmaar
But there are no flies on the Hammers boss when it comes to our confirmed opponents.
Because savvy Moyes has already done his homework on West Ham’s Europa Conference League semi-final opponents AZ Alkmaar.
Speaking to BT Sport after last night’s win Moyes showed he knows all about the Dutch side.
“Well anybody who knows about it (will know) I think they might be third in the Dutch league,” Moyes said.
“They’ve got a good momentum all year. They’ve got a really good, young team – a lot of young players, lots of new, young talent of the future the way the club works.
“So it will be a really hard game. And for them to come from 2-0 down and get through is a great achievement for them.”
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