MY ACCOUNT
David Moyes professed his delight to see West Ham qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League knockout stages but warned his side the job is not yet done after a 2-1 victory over Anderlecht.
The Hammers saw off their Belgian Pro League rivals at London Stadium on Thursday thanks to goals from Said Benrahma and Jarrod Bowen, in a match marred late on by crowd trouble in the stands.
Victory further cements West Ham’s place atop Group B with four wins from four, six points ahead of Danish outfit Silkeborg, who they face in a fortnight.
But with sides finishing in first place heading straight to the last-16, and runners-up having to settle for an additional play-off round with teams eliminated from the Europa League, Moyes cautioned there remains work to be done.
“I’m really pleased we’ve qualified for the next stage,” he stated. “The big thing is to always be in Europe still after Christmas.
“[But] the form of Silkeborg at the moment looks a problem given the goals they’re scoring, so we still need a point to be winners of the group.
“Hopefully we can do that but winning tonight was important. We deserved to win, but we made it much harder for ourselves than it should’ve been.”
The final act in London – during which Anderlecht scored a late penalty to set up a tense last few minutes – was overshadowed by off-field events, with police required to keep supporters at bay.
Anderlecht subsequently criticised their own supporters in a statement after the full-time whistle, a move Moyes applauded, though the Scotsman was at pains to limit discussion on the matter.
“It’s good for the press officer to stand up for the club,” he added. “It’s a big credit to them as they’re a really good football club. They want to protect their own club and rightly so.
“Everyone’s focus is taken away when there’s crowd trouble in some way. I didn’t have any interest in it as it’s one of those things you don’t want to talk about. I don’t want to draw any more attention to it.”
