LONDON, CMC – Jamaica striker Michail Antonio mentioned his English Premier League membership aspect, West Ham United, had given their all within the UEFA Europa League, and he was pleased with what they’d achieved.
The 34-year-old opened the scoring for the Hammers after 13 minutes with a header towards Bayer Leverkusen of their quarterfinal match at London Stadium, and he had the complete Claret and Blue Military believing they may spring a shock towards the runaway German champions.
However Leverkusen improved within the second half and struck within the 89th minute by way of Jeremie Frimpong to earn a 3-1 mixture win within the two-match, dwelling and away collection. This prolonged Die Werkself’s undefeated run to 44 matches throughout all tournaments.
“I believed we gave it our all, and the followers can see that,” Antonio mentioned in a post-play interview with the West Ham web site. “They’re a high quality crew and now unbeaten in 44 matches, however we put numerous strain on them.
“Whenever you wish to overturn a two-goal deficit, you must go after them and ensure you get an early purpose, as we did. After that, we created a few nice alternatives, however we didn’t handle to take them, and their goalkeeper managed to make some good saves.”
The chances had been closely stacked towards West Ham earlier than kick-off, they usually flew out the blocks like a aspect who knew the precise scale of their activity to beat a aspect who haven’t misplaced a match since Might 2023.
After the match, the gamers got a heat ovation from their followers – a mark of appreciation for a memorable three-year chapter of European adventures. It introduced the membership their first trophy in 43 years final season after they gained the Europa Convention League.
“It simply wasn’t meant to be,” the Reggae Boyz striker added. We’re pleased with ourselves and the crew, and to get to a few consecutive quarterfinals is a good achievement.
“Now that we’re out of it [Europe], we’ll guarantee we give the whole lot to be in it subsequent 12 months.”
Antonio was concerned in a number of battles with the complete Leverkusen backline and one other with Spanish referee José Maria Sánchez.
He was certainly one of 10 gamers proven a yellow card and was left pissed off with the stop-start nature of the match. He made a bitter swipe on the officiating and the shortage of choices for his aspect from Sanchez.
“I’m very disillusioned due to the whole lot we gave and the whole lot we did. A single resolution in the course of the recreation didn’t assist us, and I really feel a number of the selections may need modified the sport,” Antonio mentioned. “Whenever you play the sport, you need selections to go each methods – however they didn’t.
“I felt like I didn’t get a call all recreation, and I felt a bit pissed off. We felt like we deserved extra. Typically, the selections don’t go your approach. We transfer on, construct on that, and attempt to get into the Europa League subsequent 12 months.”
He mentioned: “It doesn’t really feel such as you’re taking part in towards 11 males. It feels such as you’re taking part in towards 13 or 14, together with the 2 linos (linesmen). You must preserve pushing and attempt to make your personal selections, however they only weren’t. We needed to preserve taking part in our approach and preserve being skilled.
“We’re very pleased with ourselves – three back-to-back years in European quarterfinals is unbelievable. I might by no means have thought that. We had been a yo-yo crew – into Europe, then combating (to keep away from) relegation.”
West Ham have an out of doors probability of qualifying for a fourth consecutive European season, however they might want to enhance considerably on their latest Premier League kind. They’re presently eighth within the League on 48 factors however have solely gained as soon as of their final 5 matches.
Associated
