West Ham Utd 1-0 SCO Angers

  • by Staff Writer
  • Friday, 3rd August 2018

Javier Hernandez struck early to earn West Ham a morale-boosting victory in their final game of pre-season against French side Angers in Austria.

The Mexican striker, who played alongside Marko Arnautovic in an experimental two-pronged attack pounced on an Aaron Cresswell centre to grab the game's only goal to ensure West Ham ended their pre-season campaign on a winning note.

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In what was an otherwise largely uneventful affair, as is to perhaps be expected with the Premier League season just nine days away, Manuel Pellegrini used 18 players at the Das.Goldberg Stadion in order to give as many players as possible valuable game time ahead of the opening weekend trip to Liverpool.

And whilst the Hammers failed to replicate the kind of scintillating form witnessed at the Bescot Stadium in the first half against Aston Villa last week, they were the better side overall - even though Angers found the net twice, only for both efforts to be ruled offside.

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Although United managed to test Angers goalkeeper Michel on several occasions, Michail Antonio's glaring miss when just six yards from goal was perhaps the most notable moment of the second half as the sheer number of substitutions prevented the game from entering any kind of rhythm.

The win means West Ham end pre-season with four successive victories (if you include Tuesday's penalty shootout success against Mainz, that is) with 33 players used in total by Pellegrini, as the manager attempts to produce a team capable of crushing Liverpool's new-found optimism next weekend.

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West Ham Utd: Fabianski, Fredericks, Balbuena (Diop 46), Ogbonna, Cresswell (Masuaku 57), Noble, Wilshere (Rice 63), Anderson (Martinez 57), Antonio (Snodgrass), Arnautovic (Cullen 84), Chicharito (Obiang 57).

Subs not used: Trott, Adrian, Zabaleta.

Goals: Hernandez (23).

Angers SCO: Michel, Ait-Nouri, Andreu, Cisse (Thomas 62), Pavlovic ©, Pajot (Mancini 84), Manzala, Bertrand (Tait 62), Reine-Adelaide, El Melali, Kanga.

Subs not used: Butelle (GK), Fulgini, Capelle, Santamaria, Manceau, Taipa.

Referee: Andreas Winkler.

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