West Ham’s 17-game unbeaten run in Europe came to an end in Greece (Photo: Getty)
West Ham’s record unbeaten run in Europe came to an end on Thursday night with a 2-1 defeat at Olympiakos in the Europa League.
A Kostas Fortounis strike and an own goal from Angelo Ogbonna gave the Greek club the lead against a lacklustre Irons side, with Lucas Paqueta’s brilliant, late volley not enough to prevent their first loss on the continent for over a year.
David Moyes’ men had gone 17 games unbeaten in European competition – the joint longest run for an English club – a run that included the Europa Conference League final win over Fiorentina.
That feat was matched on Wednesday night by Manchester City when they beat Young Boys 3-1 in the Champions League, and will likely be broken when the Swiss side visit the Etihad on 7th November.
‘We didn’t quite reach the standards we’ve set in Europe. We’re in the Europa League again and we’re going to have to step up our levels,’ Moyes said post-match.
‘Look, we changed a lot of players tonight, we’ve got the Premier League coming up and we’ve got a League Cup game next week and we’d won the first two games in the group, which gave us leeway to make changes tonight.
‘But maybe I have to recognise that while we didn’t win through the Conference League games easily, as they were all tough games, coming to Olympiacos after winning away in Freiburg, which was a good result, this wasn’t a good result and wasn’t a good performance.
‘In our heads we certainly had a bigger picture in our heads and that was going into Sunday. I don’t think anybody could say the team we started with wasn’t a good team and wasn’t a team capable of winning or performing. Many of them have been very good players for us over the years and still are.
‘We’ve had to do this for two years now, where we’ve had to consider what team to play on a Thursday night to have a team ready for a Sunday.
‘The recovery time, and it’s really difficult to explain if you’re not involved in it, is difficult. If you look at the teams who’ve been involved in it, it’s not easy.
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‘If you change your team, it gives you more fresh players for the Sunday, that’s your hope, so let’s hope we’re fresh for Sunday.’
Despite the defeat, West Ham are still top of Europa League Group A after three games, but now level on points with Frieburg and just two ahead of Oympiakos, with Backa Topola five behind.
The Irons will have a chance of revenge against the Greek club when they travel to the London Stadium on 9th November, but before that, the East Londoners host struggling Everton in the Premier League on Sunday.
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The Irons lost 2-1 to Olympiakos.