Westham United reached their first European finals after 47 years of striving. The English outfit beat AZ Alkmaar to a slim 1-0 win and ended the semi-final tier of UEFA Europa League Conference on 3-1 aggregate.
Pablo Fornals goal in the second half of injury time was enough to get the job done, following a resilient display which limited the home side’s chances as they sought to come back from a 2-1 first-leg deficit.
“For us to get to a final is a thrill. It’s huge, a great night.
Let’s be fair, maybe if you saw us [come so close] in the Europa League last year, you might have said ‘They’ve got a chance of winning or getting to a final’.
The support tonight was magnificent, they were right behind the whole team and players and I hope on Sunday against Leeds United they give them a huge, warm welcome.
We didn’t play well with the ball tonight, but we were well-organized and defensively well-structured.
It gave us a chance by making sure we didn’t concede tonight.
We want to play much better, and we had three or four opportunities on the counter-attack to maybe get ahead in the game earlier.”
