West Ham 5-0 Freiburg – Mohamed Kudus Thrashes Freiburg Sending West Ham Into The Europa League Quarter-Finals
Match Report of West Ham’s Europa League Round of 16 second leg against Freiburg.
Going into the fixture 1-0 down on aggregate, there was chance that West Ham would be out of Europe at the hands of Freiburg. However, West Ham dismantled the German side at the London Stadium.
Match Report
West Ham drew the tie level in the first 9 minutes through Lucas Paquetá. A corner came in from Cresswell landing at the head of Freiburg midfielder Nicolas Höfler, who mistakenly played the ball across his own goal assisting West Ham’s brilliant Brazilian.
Just over half an hour into the game Michail Antonio won a header, playing the ball into Jarrod Bowen. Bowen shows his strength by shrugging German international Ginter off of him. He continued on and unleashed a clinical strike from outside of the box which doubled the Hammer’s Lead, giving him his first European goal of the season. The goal was crucial to the tie as it sent West Ham 2-1 up on aggregate.
The game had rolled over into the second half, but West Ham had not finished yet. Bowen played a ball across the box meeting a Freiburg defender’s leg, however Cresswell latched onto the ball just inside the area. In Aaron Cresswell fashion, he used his left foot to leather the ball into the far corner. West Ham were now 3-0 up.
Mohamed Kudus scored a phenomenal solo goal to make it 4-0. He took the ball deep from his own half, beat 4 players and placed it in to the back of the net. The pace, power and finishing displayed in this goal will be a contender for the goal of the tournament.
West Ham put the final nail in the coffin on the 85th minute as Mohamed Kudus scored again. Soucek played the ball to Bowen on the edge of the box, who then played it first time to Kudus. He took the ball out of his feet and stuck another one past Noah Atubolu. Kudus oozed class all night and topped it off with another goal.
Stats
The stats favour West Ham with no shock, however they are not as one sided as one would think. West Ham managed 11 shots to Freiburg’s 10. The hammers had 7 on target, whereas Freiburg only had 3.
Freiburg dominated the possession with 61%, leaving West Ham with 39%. Freiburg did not do much with possession as they only conjured up 0.31 xG, West Ham had 2.22.
West Ham created 4 big chances, Freiburg created none. West Ham 4 times as many corners that Freiburg, as the German side only had 1.
West Ham drew one of the tournament favourites, Bayern Leverkusen, in the next round.
Player Ratings
West Ham
Starting XI: Fabianski (6), Cresswell (8), Zouma (7), Mavropanos (7), Coufal (7), Álvarez (6), Soucek (7), Bowen (8), Kudus (9), Paquetá (7), Antonio (7)
Substitutes: Ward-Prowse (6), Johnson (6), Ings (N/A), Earthy (N/A), Kalvin Phillips (N/A)
SC Freiburg
Starting XI: Atubolu (5), Günter (4), Gulde (5), Ginter (4), Sildillia (6), Grifo (6), Höfler (5), Eggestein (7), Doan (6), Sallai (6), Höler (6)
Substitutes: Phillipp (6), Gregoristsch (6), Kübler (6), Muslija (6), Röhl (6)
