West Ham United all but confirmed their spot in the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League with a 2-1 win over Anderlecht at the London Stadium on Thursday evening.
First-half goals from Said Benrahma and Jarrod Bowen were enough to see the Hammers earn three points, despite Sebastiano Esposito’s late consolation goal.
The result means that the Irons sit top of group B on 12 points, with just one point needed from their final two games in order to confirm direct passage to the knockout stages, as teams who come in second place face a preliminary round against sides who drop out of the Europa League by coming third in their group.
While Benrahma will take a lot of plaudits after his impressive free-kick and overall performance, which were desperately needed after a disappointing start to the campaign, another man who looked back to his best was Vladimir Coufal.
The Czech defender has struggled to replicate the form he showed in his first season at the club and has been ousted from the starting team by Thilo Kehrer in recent weeks.
The 30-year-old averaged a superb 6.95 rating from WhoScored in his first season in the top flight after notching seven assists but has averaged a far-less-impressive 6.36 rating in the current Premier League season, with no assists or goals to his name.
As per SofaScore, Coufal would earn a strong 7.3 rating for his display, some way above his usual mean this term, with only the goalscorers from either side rated higher.
Coufal looked far more comfortable as a right wing-back and showed his attacking qualities, as he registered three key passes in the match, which was the most of any player on the pitch.
He also completed all three of his crosses and contributed two clearances and three interceptions.
By comparison, the former Slavia Prague man has averaged 0.7 key passes, 1.4 clearances and two interceptions per game in the top flight this season, which shows that he really raised his game against Anderlecht.
After his impressive performances in his debut campaign, David Moyes labelled him “brilliant” and the Scottish manager will be hoping that this strong display is a sign that Coufal is getting back to his best in a West Ham shirt.
from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/QUBW1Tm
via IFTTT