West Ham United’s hope of making it to the Europa League final crushed after suffering a 1-0 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt at the Deutsche Bank Park on Thursday.
The Hammers had a huge task on their hands after suffering a 2-1 loss in the first leg in London last midweek. Their job of overcoming the deficit became more challenging and difficult after Aaron Cresswell was sent off in the 19th minute when he brought down Jens Petter Hauge outside the box.
David Moyes went with three at the back for the semi-final clash and Cresswell was one of the players to start in West Ham United’s defence. Rafael Santos Borré found the back of the net for the hosts seven minutes after the 32-year-old was given the marching orders.
With the 1-0 win yesterday, the aggregate score was 3-1 in Eintracht Frankfurt’s favour, which allowed them to book a place against Rangers in the final on May 18th.
Bild in Germany have been critical of Moyes and West Ham United players. They use the German school grading system. It is between 1 to 6, where 1 means very good, 2 is good, 3 is average, 4 is passable but still lacking, 5 is deficient and 6 is insufficient. A 6 is the lowest possible grade and, taking it back to the school grades, it means that not only were things not up to standard, but there was even a failure to understand the basics.
West Ham United goalkeeper Alphonse Areola and their forward, Michail Antonio, were the only two players to get the rating of 3. Craig Dawson, Vladimír Coufal and Declan Rice got 4.
The rest of Moyes’ men, Tomáš Souček, Kurt Zouma, Manuel Lanzini, Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen were deemed deficient, which is why they got a rating of 5.
Cresswell and West Ham United manager David Moyes got a worst rating of 6 from Bild, with the latter likely due to the fact was also sent off after being seen kicking a ball in the direction of a ball boy.
