Hammers’ record-breaking European run had to end sooner or later after 17 gravity-defying games
West Ham shouldn’t mourn the end of their unbeaten European run but celebrate its existence. It’s an absurd run for a team of their means.
Eighteen games after defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League semi-final in May 2022, West Ham have finally lost again in Europe.
Worth keeping in mind that English record 17-game run, which included that memorable Europa Conference League final victory over Fiorentina to end a 43-year major trophy drought, when considering this undeniably disappointing end.
It would be easy to criticise David Moyes on this occasion for his team changes, or for the disappointing performances of assorted fringe players. But it would also be churlish. This had to happen somewhere along the line, and the intimidating atmosphere provided by Olympiacos always looked a possible location. Moyes will certainly have known as much having lost 2-0 here during his ill-starred Manchester United reign.
The Hammers were the own worst enemies tonight. However tough the setting, they remain a better football team than their opponents. They will probably show as much pretty convincingly in the return leg.
They were second best throughout the first half, but to find themselves 2-0 down as much through their own errors as anything else will grate. Probably be a while before another 17-game unbeaten European run comes along; shame not to make it 18. And if it got to 18, it would probably have made it to at least 21 given the remaining fixtures. Ah well.
None of Emerson Palmieri, James Ward-Prowse or Pablo Fornals will be particularly proud of their contribution to the opening goal, while Angelo Ogbonna – stand-in skipper on the night – gave the visitors too much to do after slicing a cross into his own net in first-half stoppage time.
Again, though: what’s surprising is not really that this happened, but that it hasn’t happened for 18 games. West Ham are simply not supposed to go on those kinds of runs, and Moyes and his players deserve huge credit for the balancing act they’ve managed over the last three seasons in Europe. It’s of course also worth remembering this run started with defeat in a semi-final at the end of another very creditable European effort for a group of players and a club with minimal relevant experience.
What it does do is leave West Ham with a bit of work to do to ensure they remain in this competition rather than the one they won last year beyond Christmas. One argument in favour of going stronger here with the initial team selection was that victory would have all but wrapped up qualification with three games to spare and given Moyes plenty of leeway to rest and rotate in the coming weeks.
The difference after Lucas Paqueta, Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio came on was stark as the Hammers came close to snatching a point. But it’s easy to sit here and say ‘just pick your best players’. It doesn’t quite work that way in real life, and if nothing else Moyes has earned the right to be trusted with his calls on these European nights.
And although this is a result that undoubtedly throws the group wide open with just two points separating the top three and Backa Topola cut adrift, it’s still the Hammers very much in control with two home games to come against what are now their direct rivals in the group.
It should all still be fine. And West Ham really have never had it so good in continental terms. Far better to celebrate a record-breaking run that nobody could have predicted than mourn its ending.
