West Ham were drawn against Ligue 1 outfit Lyon in the quarter-finals of the Europa League yesterday afternoon.
The Hammers were unbelievable on Thursday night against Sevilla at the London Stadium and won the game 2-0 after extra-time.
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Lyon, meanwhile, drew 1-1 with Porto – a result that was enough see them win the tie 2-1 on aggregate.
At this stage of the Europa League, any team left would have been a tough draw, aside from perhaps Braga. But the Portuguese outfit are there on merit and were good enough to swat Monaco aside.
West Ham are currently sitting in sixth spot in the Premier League table whilst Lyon are struggling and are down in 10th spot in Ligue 1.
David Moyes will be well aware that his side are more than capable of beating Lyon but at the same time, the Hammers players cannot afford to take anything for granted.
Lyon, meanwhile, will certainly not be relishing playing against us.
West Ham play with a certain kind of intensity, physicality and energy that the French side may well find difficult to cope with.
Lyon chief speaks out after West Ham Europa League draw
After the draw was made yesterday afternoon, there was plenty of reaction from both clubs.
One that stood out for us was the comments from Lyon general manager Vincent Ponsot. He told RMC Sport:
“It’s a big piece. Sixth in the Premier League this year and sixth last year, two points off Chelsea. Big team and big draw, because beyond that there’s the winner of Eintracht Frankfurt-Barcelona. It’s a tough competition, you can see it with all the teams from the Champions League that have been knocked out in the Europa League. We knew we’d have big opponents. It’s true that with the current potential draw with West Ham and then potentially Barcelona in the semis, who will need to beat Frankfurt, it’s hard to do worse. We’ll gallantly play our bit.“
That is quite the claim considering some of the teams remaining in the competition including Barcelona, Eintracht Frankfurt, Atalanta and RB Leipzig.
Ponsot is right though!
West Ham proved against Sevilla on Thursday that we are a match for pretty much any side in Europa when we’re at our best.
Sevilla are second in the La Liga table remember!
West Ham have every chance of progressing through from the quarter-finals of the Europa League when we face-off against Lyon. If the players put in a similar shift to the one they did against Sevilla we may well be too hot to handle for the French side.
And it seems as though the powers that be at Lyon are already well aware of that fact.
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