West Ham Utd 0-3 Rubin Kazan

  • by Staff Writer
  • Wednesday, 20th July 2016

West Ham's woeful pre-season continued in Austria this afternoon as they slumped to a 3-0 defeat against Russian Premier League side Rubin Kazan.

Just 24 hours after they'd let slip a two goal advantage against Czech outfit FC Slovacko, Slaven Bilic's side fell to defeat against a Kazan side who are slightly ahead in their preparation for the season ahead (which begins ten days from now).

It took just 23 minutes for the Russians to take the lead, a goal from Devic who darted in to score from close range - and expose Michail Antonio's inexperience at full back.

And they were to double their advantage seconds ahead of the half time break as Declan Rice’s underhit backpass was punished by Lestienne, who coolly finished past West Ham's first choice goalkeeper Adrian.

The Spaniard was to play the whole 90 minutes - perhaps as the result of Raphael Spiegel's poor performance against Slovacko yesterday - and was forced to pick the ball out of his net for a third time with 23 minutes remaining.

Kazan substitute Karadeniz - who had been on the pitch for only 13 minutes - finished from close range to seal the win for his team, just moments after a team mate had struck the post.

Although recent results should be taken with a pinch of salt given their friendly status there will be a number of concerns for Bilic and his team to consider in the coming days.

Chiefly, the lack of a competent goalscorer, with Enner Valencia looking powder-puff and not prepared to put his foot in lest it cost him the chance of a lucrative summer move, just two years after he arrived at the Boleyn Ground.

Andy Carroll meanwhile continues to train to a specialised programme which hasn't included involvement in either of the Austrian matches, whilst Diafra Sakho is unlikely to ever kick a ball for the club again following a much-publicised fallout which (partly) led to his omission from the travelling party.

Rumours tonight suggest that at least one of those issues is set to be answered - good news perhaps, given that the Premier League campaign begins little more than a fortnight from now.


West Ham Utd: Adrian, Antonio (Cullen 64), Nordtveit, Burke (Rice 33), Cresswell (Page 74), Kouyate (Browne 74), Feghouli (Samuelsen 80), Quina (Obiang 46), Noble, Tore (Fletcher 74), Valencia (Martinez 80).

Subs not used: Randolph, Spiegel, Makasi.

Rubin Kazan: Ryzhikov, Nabiullin, Devic (Karadeniz 54), Lestienne (Tkachuk 62), Caktas, Sanchez, Ozdoev, Burlak, Garcia, Ustinov, Akhmetov.

Subs: Bergstrom, Kverkvelina, Portnyagin, Mironov, Zhemaletdinov, Bauer, Nesterenko, Zambrano, Dzhallov, Kuznetcov, Filtsov, Kamenshikov, Kambolov, Akmurzin

Goals: Devic (23), Lestienne (45), Karadeniz (67).

* Something to say about this story? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.



More News