West Ham United London (home) 22.12.2021

Colours : –

[worn with white socks]

Both sides were very much changed as they took the field, with injuries and rotation seeing players missing, but that didn’t stop the tackles flying in and having seen Chris Kavanagh ref a Championship game at the weekend, he let nothing go, as had been the case at the start of the season. Here he was giving early free-kicks, but with no admonishment to the player  committing the foul, so maybe it was just a question of how many you could get away with.

The first effort on target came with 12 minutes gone, with the ball played into Lucas Moura, who turned his man to go right and then played a reverse pass to put Kane running forward to the left, from where he dug out a shot that Areola had to palm away. Coming up to the quarter of an hour, West Ham got a free-kick on their right wing outside the penalty area and it was fizzed in, with Hugo Lloris having to beat it out in the middle of the goal and then had a corner on the other side that Hugo punched away at the near post, then Sanchez did well to block a Vlasic shot when he had space in the box, then Lloris was positive coming to punch out the corner when it was played into the area.

The opening goal came in the 29th minute and it started with Harry Kane winning the ball just outside the West Ham area and after a series of passes, Hjobjerg played the ball in to Steven Bergwijn in the area, with Diop at his back. He held the defender off and returned the ball to his right where Pierre had continued his run. Aware of white shirts in front of goal, he played the ball into the six yard box and Bergwijn did well to sort his feet out to find the net from close range. It was a very well-worked move and Bergwijn looked determined to make a good impression on his first start under Conte.

West Ham hit back straight away with Lanzini crossing from the right for Soucek to come in at the far post with a header that Hugo produced a super save, leaping up to his right to push the ball over the bar and then in the follow-up move he had to touch another Soucek header over the top. From the corner, Rice baulked Lloris from getting to the ball, but Dawson headed it too high. When Spurs tried to play the ball out from the back, Dier’s pass was picked off 25 yards out and Vlasic’s cross-shot went to Bowen in the heart of the penalty area, where he dragged the ball back to make space and shot low to Lloris’ right to equalise just three minutes after we had gone ahead.

It was end to end stuff at this point and two minutes later, Bergwijn did well to wriggle into the penalty area on the right hand side to pull a pass square along the six yard line and Lucas Moura was there to tuck the ball under Areola to put Spurs back into the lead.  It was all very frantic after a spell of fifteen minutes when there was just a lot of passing in midfield with little forward movement.

Oliver Skipp made a great intervention as Lanzini tried to pick out Soucek’s late run into the far post on the right, but Skippy stretched to get a vital touch to the ball before the Iron and  diverted it inches the right side of the post.  Spurs were still looking to extend the lead and a raking pass out to Doherty on the right by Hjobjerg saw the Irishman head it up into the air and get to it again.  He exchanged passes with Kane and pulled the ball back for Bergwijn in the box. The Dutchman looked to spin away from his man at the near post, but Dawson just about managed to get a touch on it to take the ball off him.

Just a few minutes into the second half, we were treated to a Hugo Lloris Cruyff turn inside his own six yard box ! Spurs were moving the ball quickly after closing down West Ham high up the pitch.  Skipp had a shot after Bergwijn’s effort was blocked on the edge of the box, but the youngster’s effort hit Stevie to divert the ball wide.  Another flowing move saw Bergwijn taken out but play went on, with Doherty’s low cross taking a flick off a purple shirted player and bouncing up onto Lucas Moura’s arm when he was right in front of goal.  Ben Davies was alive to Bowen’s run across him and the Welshman got there first to put Masuaku’s cross behind for a corner.  It was Bowen who threatened again when Lanzini’s ball over the top found him running into the box and Lloris was smartly off his line to knock the ball away from the forward. The Irons’ youngster Ashby then went down in the box so theatrically, he is up for an Oscar in a few week’s time.

On the hour, Conte took the two goal-scorers off and introduced Winks and Son to change things up a bit.  Doherty’s ball into the box came off Masuaka and onto his arm, but the referee wasn’t interested. Reguilon got a cross in from the dead ball line on the left and Skipp was in the middle but was beaten to the header, while at the other end, a low ball into the area around the penalty spot found Benrahma, who turned and skied his shot into the North Stand.

Kane played Son into the middle of the box, but his touch wasn’t good enough and the ball ran through to the keeper. Hojbjerg was all over the pitch and when Benrahma looked as  though he was about to fire a shot in on goal from 25 yards, Pierre appeared from nowhere to produce a sliding block that made sure the ball only got a couple of yards from the West Ham player. The same player tried an effort from just outside the box, but hit it low and straight allowing Hugo to get down behind it and then a minute later, he popped the ball up from the right hand corner of the box and struck a volley that went wide of Hugo’s right-hand post.

The changes seem to have favoured West Ham, as Spurs were dropping back towards their own goal, perhaps tired by the efforts of the first half, so Conte made his last substitutions, with Royal and Japhet Tanganga replacing Reguilon and Doherty.

West Ham were lumping high balls forward and it was when they played the ball on the floor that Yarmelenko tried a shot from just inside the left-hand corner of the penalty box, which took a flick off a Spurs defender and looped toward the top of the goal. Lloris back-peddled furiously and the ball hit the top of the bar, but the referee gave a corner. Areola came up for it, Hugo got to the ball but could only knock it down and the opposition keeper tried to lob it back into the goal-mouth twice, with the second running through to Lloris and that was it. The final whistle sounded and Spurs were in the semi-finals again.

The second half was a bit less fluid from Tottenham, but they stuck at it and gave West Ham few good chances while looking less dangerous on the break.  It worked out in our favour, while in past times, Mourinho’s style of sitting back on a lead has cost us (against West Ham as well as others).

So another semi against Chelsea and we can probably guess the outcome of that !

Isaac Gregory