Birkirkara 1-0 West Ham Utd (aet, West Ham win 5-3 on pens)

  • by Staff Writer
  • Thursday, 23rd July 2015

West Ham celebrated as they finally secured passage through to the third qualifying round of the Europa League - despite having been embarrassed on the night by the minnows of Birkirkara.

United's (rather fortuitous) slender one-goal lead from the first leg proved to be entirely insufficient as the hosts, spurred on by an enthusiastic crowd - and a band that made the England supporters lot seem almost palatable - wiped out West Ham's lead as early as the 14th minute.

To be fair to tonight's hosts, it was a quality effort; West Ham, caught on the counter retreated as Costa raced away down the right. His centre was perfectly angled for the arriving Miccoli, who forced both ball and attending defender O'Brien into the back of Adrian's net with considerable force.

Although West Ham continued to look the stronger side, despite being a goal behind, the tables were turned when James Tomkins was ridiculously dismissed as he lined up in the opposition penalty box for a corner.

Slaven Bilic's players had allowed themselves to become unnecessarily embroiled in several petty disagreements prior to the flashpoint that led to Tomkins' dismissal, as several examples of deliberately cynical play by Birkirkara had been allowed to go unpunished by referee Enea Jorgji.

And the Albanian official allowed himself to be conned by the home side's players once again on the stroke of half time.

As Tomkins lined up on the perimeter of the six-yard box he was grabbed - and held - by defender Nikola Vukanac. Attempting to push the defender away from him, Tomkins fell to ground with his opponent - who immediately clutched his face in mock agony.

The play-acting defender's team mates immediately surrounded the referee to insist that he take action against Tomkins - demands the inept Jorgji meekly surrendered to, by issuing Tomkins with a straight red card to his and his team mate's utter dismay.

Down to ten men, and playing in temperatures still in the high 70s, West Ham continued to find it difficult to make inroads in the final third. All too often, as was the case last season, promising moves broke down in the final third with players unwilling to attempt a killer cross or threaded pass that may unlock the Maltese defence.

On the one occasion that they did, the ball did find the back of the net - only for substitute Modibo Maiga to see his effort rules out (marginally) for offside. However that came with just three minutes of extra time remaining - and after Birkirkara has themselves been reduced to ten men following the dismissal of Mazzetti for dissent.

With neither team looking like scoring had we played all night, it was with some relief that the final whistle was blown after 120 minutes of excruciating football, in which the Hammers had once again made themselves a laughing stock by falling to defeat against a team of far lesser standing.

Yet at least on this occasion they had the opportunity to redeem themselves to some degree via the ensuing penalty shootout.

Mark Noble, Mauro Zarate and Aaron Cresswell took their spot kicks beautifully, as did Fenech and Plut for B'kara. Then Karma struck - as Vukanac, whose dreadful histrionics led to the dismissal of Tomkins, blasted his effort high into the Maltese night sky.

Joey O'Brien's equally impressive 12-yarder and Agius' reply left Diego Poyet simply needing to convert to win the day for the Hammers - which he did, a touch brazenly, by waiting for goalkeeper Haben Justin to commit before rolling the ball into the opposite corner.

In the end West Ham can consider themselves extremely lucky to find themselves in the next round, where a far tougher opponent in Astra await. Any thoughts of putting out a team of similarly-disjointed individuals for that one should be instantly dismissed.




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