There have not been many times when David Moyes has been able to stand back and admire his team’s play from a position of comfort this season.
The complaints over West Ham’s football have been relentless and, given how much criticism has been thrown in his direction, it was easy to understand why Moyes was celebrating so passionately when Declan Rice put this Europa Conference League quarter-final out of Gent’s reach once and for all.
In the end this was a night when West Ham could put their relegation concerns to one side and dream of a glorious end to this most challenging of campaigns.
They will face AZ Alkmaar in the semi-finals after recovering from conceding a sloppy early goal by blowing Gent away during a blistering second half – Lucas Paquetá was outstanding – and will fancy their chances of winning their first piece of silverware since 1980 if Rice, who scored the best goal of his career, continues to play with this much authority.
West Ham could not afford to take Gent lightly after being outplayed during the first leg. The tie was in the balance and there was little to separate the sides during the early stages. West Ham’s physicality and urgency, typified by Rice storming into challenges in midfield and Michail Antonio looking to outmuscle his markers in attack, was not necessarily going to prove decisive.
Gent played the slicker, smarter football for much of the first half. They were impressive when they moved the ball at speed, slicing through midfield with clever one-touch exchanges, and they created the first chance. A cross from Sven Kums caught West Ham’s defence out and it should have led to the opening goal, only for Gift Orban to take his eye off the ball when he tried to head it past Alphonse Areola.
No matter. Everything felt rushed from West Ham when they got into the final third. Antonio lifted the crowd with a burst through the middle, only to run out of ideas when he reached the area. Paquetá picked out Jarrod Bowen, whose shot was blocked. Kurt Zouma headed over from a decent position.
West Ham were unconvincing and they were behind in the 26th minute. It came from Paquetá squandering possession, Orban driving down the left and Emerson Palmieri failing to read the danger. The left-back was too slow to respond, too lacking in basic defensive instincts, and he was nowhere to be seen when Orban’s cross exposed West Ham’s loss of shape.
Instead Moyes watched in disbelief as Matisse Samoise arrived at the far post to tee up Hugo Cuypers, who followed up his goal in the first leg by bundling the ball in from close range.
Shock descended on the home crowd. Yet while West Ham were struggling to stretch Gent in open play, their power at set-pieces gave them hope. So it proved when they levelled with a simple goal: Bowen whipping in a free-kick from the right and Antonio, dominant at the near post, more or less letting the ball bounce in off his head.
Antonio’s awkward, unpredictable hold-up play was confusing Gent. The game became chaotic, which suited West Ham. They began the second half in the frenzy, Tomas Soucek blasting against the bar, Davy Roef denying Bowen, and it all proved too much for Gent.
Nothing summed up their loss of composure than Joseph Okumu handling Vladimir Coufal’s cross when there was nobody near him. It was a dreadful piece of defending and Orel Grinfeld, the Israeli referee, eventually pointed to the spot after being sent to the pitchside monitor.
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The tension lifted. Paquetá, with a nonchalant run-up, converted his penalty to put West Ham ahead on aggregate. The Brazilian was on a mission to make up for his earlier error. Soon he was displaying the other side to his game, retrieving possession and diverting the ball to Rice.
From just inside his own half, Rice charged forward and finished Gent off on his own by twisting past the hapless Okumu and sliding a low finish past Roef.
Paquetá soon stirred again, dropping deep and finding Antonio, who cut inside and rammed a rising shot beyond Roef. Gent had collapsed. West Ham hunted for more and Bowen had a goal disallowed for handball. It mattered little by that stage.
