📰 Table Of Contents
Pre-Match Social Media Commentary
Could tonight be the last time we see Declan Rice in a West Ham shirt?
Nicky Summerbee takes a closer look at the English midfielder. #beINUECL #UECLfinal #FiorentinaWestHam pic.twitter.com/SN6j3appvm
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) June 7, 2023
“We’ve been ready for a few days now!” 💪
David Moyes speaks to @Becky_Ives_ ahead of West Ham’s first chance at European glory in 47 years!! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ZmbPq2iJfi
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) June 7, 2023
West Ham’s last three major European finals:
◎ 1965 – Cup Winners’ Cup
◎ 1976 – Cup Winners’ Cup
◉ 2023 – UECLIt’s been a long time coming. ⚒️ #UECLfinal pic.twitter.com/IKMfuTd1uC
— Squawka Live (@Squawka_Live) June 7, 2023
“Three Italian teams in all of the European finals… Can Fiorentina be the first to claim silverware?” 🤔@JamesHorncastle shares insight on the expectations surrounding the Italian side…#UECLfinal pic.twitter.com/qQfEWU5x9p
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) June 7, 2023
“He actually deep down loves this football club!”
“It couldn’t happen to a better person!” 🙌
Mark Noble talks Declan Rice’s impact since joining West Ham and what a great personality he brings! ⚒️
🎙️ @julesbreach pic.twitter.com/48hsRNAkzD
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) June 7, 2023
If West Ham win tonight, which I actually hope they do, they will have had a better season than every London club, except for Arsenal.
Winning a trophy is decent, but challenging for the title and earning CL football is more important than winning a 3rd tier European trophy. https://t.co/HuaX5ncTJo
— Tom (@TomsTeamTalk) June 7, 2023
🗣 “They should beat Fiorentina, they’re a middle of the road Italian team.”
Harry Redknapp is confident that West Ham will be crowned Europa Conference League champions 🏆⚒ pic.twitter.com/TPUDbza4mn
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) June 7, 2023
If Fiorentina are a middle of the road Italian side, West Ham don’t even exist on that road. https://t.co/qcaExktI9A
— Kaustubh Pandey (@Kaus_Pandey17) June 7, 2023
I’d bet everything I own Harry can’t name one Fiorentina player. https://t.co/aGy6ovUnHP
— Adriano Del Monte (@adriandelmonte) June 7, 2023
Match Report
West Ham United fans will be singing into the long hours of the night in Prague after David Moyes’ Hammers ran out 2-1 winners against Serie A outfit Fiorentina in the final of the Europa Conference League.
FT: Fiorentina 1-2 West Ham
The Hammers have won a major European trophy for the first time since the 1964/65 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
The #UECL champions are massive. ⚒ pic.twitter.com/ex5xgEcuiG
— Squawka Live (@Squawka_Live) June 7, 2023
Moyes, who secured his first piece of silverware in a career that spans nearly 1,100 matches, also became the first British manager since Sir Alex Ferguson to list a European trophy, while putting an exclamation point on 2022-23 that was massively disappointing on the home front.
It was a historic night for Hammers left-back Emerson as well, becoming the first player to ever win the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League, while the Italian international can also boast a European Championship with the Azzurri.
In what was a hotly-contested opening forty-five minutes that regularly boiled over into borderline aggression (perhaps due to pre-match clashes between fans in Prague), neither Fiorentina nor West Ham was capable of opening the scoring at Fortuna Arena.
La Viola dominated proceedings, however, boasting 68% possession and keeping David Moyes’ Hammers under 100 completed passes in the first half, while the Serie A side created one big chance that they failed to convert.
Argentine winder Nico González offered the greatest attacking threat for Vincenzo Italiano’s men, though star England midfielder Declan Rice did have a halfway decent chance earlier in the half when his rasping half-volley from just outside the box sailed just wide of Pietro Terracciano’s goal.
Fiorentina captain Cristiano Biraghi has head cut by an object thrown from #WHUFC section. “An important security announcement. Stop throwing objects onto the pitch. Please respect players and the officials.” Referee’s been poor but throwing missiles is unforgivable. #UECLfinal
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) June 7, 2023
Biraghi would once again be at the center of attention 15-minutes after the restart when he was judged to have committed a handball in the box in the wake of Jarrod Bowen chesting down an over-the-top ball into the area, with the Hammers dispatching the match opener through Saïd Benrahma.
Fiorentina leveled matters just seven minutes later through Giacomo Bonaventura when the Italian dispatched a half-volley past Alphonse Areola low into the far corner after González did well to nod down a high ball into the box to set up the midfielder in space.
But the Hammers were not to be denied on the night after Bowen burst through into the box just seconds before added time to slot past Terracciano after Lucas Paquetá played an expertly weighted through ball between the lines for the winger to convert under pressure. It was Bowen’s fifth strike in eleven Conference League matches, but undoubtedly one of the most important of his career.
West Ham end their 43-year wait for a major trophy by winning the 2022/23 Europa Conference League.
MASSIVE. ⚒ pic.twitter.com/amfBLUQQ0S
— Squawka (@Squawka) June 7, 2023
In the end, the Hammers would go on to secure their first piece of European silverware since the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup, and their first major honor in over four decades in what was sure to be the perfect send-off for captain and midfield star Declan Rice.
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