Gianluca Scamacca scored the winner to help West Ham produce one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Europa League. The heavily altered visitors—manager David Moyes made nine substitutions from Saturday’s 2-0 victory against Wolves at home—dominated the group B match at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, but some sluggish goal-scoring allowed the game to remain scoreless as the last ten minutes approached. With 20 minutes remaining, Moyes made three attacking substitutions, and two of those substitutions combined for the game-winning goal as Lucas Paqueta set up Scamacca to score his fifth goal for his new team. West Ham made it three victories in a row in the group as a consequence, and it is now possible for them to play in Europe following the holiday season.
West Ham nevertheless controlled the opening phases of the game in Brussels and should have led at the half despite making a whopping nine changes from the weekend victory against Wolves. Said Benrahma, an Algerian playmaker, missed a number of golden opportunities, none more so than the goal-scoring opportunity he missed five minutes before halftime after being set up by Jarrod Bowen’s cutback. It was evident that Said Benrahma had left his shooting boots at home. The game was closely contested in the second half, but Moyes’ quadruple substitution with 20 minutes left—introducing players like captain Declan Rice, as well as recent additions Paqueta and Scamacca—turned the tide.
Alphonse Areola, playing at No. 2, made a fantastic reaction save to deny Fabio Silva’s close-range header in the 84th minute, just when it appeared the on-loan Wolves striker would tie the score. The Hammers now just need four points from their last three group games to ensure a spot in the playoffs next spring as Moyes and company try to improve on their Europa League semi-final appearance from the previous campaign.
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