West Ham United have secured their first European title since 1965 after defeating Fiorentina 2-1 in the Europa Conference League final on Wednesday night.
UEFA Europa League Final
Result: Fiorentina 1-2 West Ham United
Date: 07 June 2023
Venue: Fortuna Arena
West Ham coach David Moyes opted for Alphonse Areola, who has been used as the goalkeeper for the cup competitions as Lukasz Fabianksi dropped to the bench.
The Hammers managed to carve out a chance after 13 minutes when Giacomo Bonaventura's clearance fell as far as Declan Rice, who sent his strike just wide of the upright from the edge of the box.
The Serie A outfit dominated proceedings thereafter, with Morocco star Sofyan Amrabat and Bonaventura seeing a lot of the ball, but they were unable to carve out chances for their frontline.
There was a stoppage time in the game after the 30-minute mark when Viola captain Cristiano Biraghi needed medical attention after being hit an objects thrown onto the pitch by West Ham supporters.
Fiorentina did have the ball in the back of the net on the stroke of halftime Luka Jovic headed in from close range, but celebrations were cut short as the striker was flagged offside.
That proved to be Jovic's final involvement in the game as the Fiorentina forward took a knock to the head in the incident and was replaced by Arthur Cabral.
The second half continued in similar fashion to the first half, but the Hammers were afforded the chance to take the lead on 59 minutes after being awarded a penalty following a review on the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) monitor. Saïd Benrahma stepped and calmly slotted home to open the scoring.
Fiorentina weren't behind for too long as Nico Gonzalez's knockdown found Bonaventura, who took a superb first touch before volleying into the bottom corner to restore parity.
Both sides opted to re-shuffle the pack in the final 15 minutes, as the Hammers threw on Pablo Fornals for Benrahma while the Italian outfit introduced Igor for Luca Ranieri.
With the game seemingly headed for extra-time, the Hammers popped up with the winning goal on 90 minutes as Lucas Paqueta played in Jarrod Bowen, who surged towards goal and slotted home the winning goal to hand his side the title.
You must be SIGNED IN to read and post comments.
