Show-stopping Mohammed Kudus adds gloss to West Ham frontline


For 77 minutes, West Ham were mature and clinical as they cruised towards the Europa League quarter-finals — then, Mohammed Kudus stepped up and turned a procession into a spectacle.

Kudus scored two brilliant goals to round off this thrashing of Freiburg, making last night the Hammers’ biggest-ever win in Europe under David Moyes.

It is some achievement for West Ham to have reached the quarter-finals of a European competition three years running, and an enormous credit to Moyes, who is never far from a fresh round of speculation about his future. It often takes years for a club to crack the continent, whatever the level, but Moyes has built a side who are already an impressive force in Europe.

The Hammers had far too much for Freiburg, who arrived here with a 1-0 lead from last week’s first leg in Germany but were quickly overwhelmed.

Lucas Paqueta settled the nerves with the opener in the ninth minute, and the tie was effectively over shortly after half-time, when Aaron Cresswell scored the third with a lovely finish.

In between, Jarrod Bowen fired home a fierce low strike, marking his latest England call-up with his first goal in Europe this season and 18th overall.

Kudus, though, stole the show. His solo dribble from deep inside his own half, ending with a cool finish (below) into the bottom corner, was spectacular. Freiburg had, by that point, thrown in the towel, but it was a special goal from a special player — “Roy of the Rovers” stuff, according to Moyes.

The Ghanaian added West Ham’s fifth with a fine effort from outside the box, his last action before he was replaced, to a standing ovation. “His impact has been massive since joining, he’s an amazing player,” said Vladimir Coufal.

There are better teams than West Ham left in this competition, notably favourites Liverpool and the unbeaten Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen, but perhaps only Jurgen Klopp’s side can definitively claim to have a better front line.

Kudus, Bowen and Paqueta are all match- winners, and Michail Antonio’s inclusion as the central striker worked well, the veteran stretching

Freiburg’s defence with his directness and opening up space. The three behind him all took advantage, and there was a variety to West Ham’s attack that should pose problems to better sides than Freiburg.

“Jarrod can cut in, whip it in with his left foot,” said Antonio. “Mo plays on the left, on the right, he’s got the power to run through players. Lucas has got the skills and pass to put anyone through. With all that, it is magic!

“Jarrod bags goals, Kudus with goals and Lucas adds goals, but is more of an assist man. Going forward, we’ve got pace, we’ve got power, we’ve got strength and we’ve got the ability to score.”

West Ham’s attacking options are dangerous (Getty Images)

The question for Moyes is how to get the balance right. For all their attacking quality, West Ham gave Freiburg enough glimpses of goal to make the match more of a contest, and Moyes will likely tighten up with an extra midfielder for the visit of Aston Villa on Sunday.

Antonio is likely to drop out, and while he played his part last night, a front three of Kudus, Bowen and Paqueta is a more realistic set-up for West Ham long-term. Bowen, who is happy to deputise at centre-forward, believes that the trio are building something special.

“When we play together, we have a real understanding of what we want from each other, how we’re going to play and where we want to be,” he said.

“The Manchester United game, we won 2-0 and played really well, but we lost Lucas for six weeks or so and Mo to the Africa Cup of Nations, which halted our progress. We were starting to build something really special.”

When West Ham lost the Europa League semi-final to Eintracht Frankfurt two years ago, their front three for both legs was Antonio, Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Fornals: diligent, but incomparable to Bowen, Paqueta and Kudus.

If West Ham’s three star men can continue to develop their understanding, they have the firepower to continue to progress in this competition.



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