17 April 2024 , 17:08
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David Moyes hopes Bayer Leverkusen have been on the sauce after their Bundesliga triumph - and that West Ham give them a bitter Pils to swallow.
The Hammers boss was ale and hearty as he assessed his team’s prospects of overturning a 2-0 deficit from the first leg in Thursday's Europa League quarter-final at the London Stadium.
Leverkusen clinched their maiden title with a 5-0 romp against Werder Bremen on Sunday and toasted their 43-match unbeaten run this season with nectar from one-litre jugs.
Moyes hopes the celebrations went on long into the night - and perhaps spilled into the start of the week.
“And rightly so - why would you not celebrate winning the title,” he said. "To be the champions, you should celebrate, you should enjoy it because those moments don’t come round very often and they go very quickly. I hope they've been downing those big giant glasses of beer they get in Germany.”
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It would be the greatest comeback of Moyes’ 1,145-game managerial career if the Hammers gave Xabi Alonso’s invincibles a giant hangover.
And although they will be without the suspended Lucas Paqueta and Emerson, 19-goal top scorer Jarrod Bowen is expected to return from a back injury after training with the squad yesterday.
Bayer Leverkusen toasted their Bundesliga title at the weekend (Action Press/REX/Shutterstock)Moyes, who is 61 next week, said: “I would never risk a player if I thought they were injured, but you always want your best players back in, especially your goalscorers.
"Most people know exactly what Jarrod has done for us over this season and others. It would give us and the crowd a real lift. We've lost Lucas through suspension, so we have to find ways of making magic happen.”
It is a strange world where a manager can deliver only the fifth trophy in a club’s history and find himself under fire from sections of the fanbase 12 months later.
But that is Moyes’ predicament on a night which could go down in East end folklore - or spell the end of an era if West Ham don’t qualify for Europe again.
Jarrod Bowen is in line for a return for West Ham (Dalton Bowden/REX/Shutterstock)A new two-year contract awaits him in the pending tray, but he is in no rush to sign it before his existing deal runs out at the end of this season.
Asked if he felt under pressure, Moyes said: “Not at all, but as a manager you have to accept that your job is like that.
"We’ve had a lot of ups, some downs as well, but in the main it’s been really positive. Maybe West Ham are a different sort of club. This place has never been all smooth, but this is probably its highest standing for a long time.
“No one is coming here to have a smooth ride. It is a club which has been up and down, but it's never been in Europe three times in a row and now our plan is to make it four.”
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David Moyes is in no rush to decide his future (PA)Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabiański, who is 39 on Thursday, warned the Irons cannot afford to be too gung-ho from the first whistle, saying: “Our game plan has to be smart.
“You can’t go too crazy from the very first minute. It’s a very demanding challenge, but we have to believe we can do it.
“We have managed to create some special magic on European nights here and we hope this will be another one.”
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