Premier LeagueWest Ham United 2-2 Burnley
Sunday, 10th March 2024
by James Haley
An excellent second half performance from the Hammers rescued a 2-2 draw at the London Stadium.
Burnley started the game with a bang. In the 10th minute, David Datro Fofana skipped past Kalvin Phillips and Nayef Aguerd and smashed an unstoppable effort into the top corner.West Ham struggled to create any meaningful chances in the first half. Vladimir Coufal almost managed to set up James Ward-Prowse, but his far post shot bounced off his thigh and was comfortably cleared.
Later, Konstantinos Mavropanos tried to drag the Hammers back into the game as he bulldozed his way through the Burnley team and smashed a shot wide of the post.
But the Hammers still looked larthagic in their play and Burnley were knocking the ball around with relative ease, whilst also dealing with the threat of Mohamed Kudus and Jarrod Bowen.
A West Ham player would go on to score before the interval - but it was at the wrong end, as Josh Cullen's powerful cross was touched on by Mavropanos who turned it into his own goal.
Boos echoed around the London Stadium as the Hammers went into the break, with a lot of work to do in the second half.
Fortunately West Ham came flying out of the blocks. Just 32 seconds into the second half, Lucas Paqueta knocked it past Dara O'Shea and calmy finished past James Trafford to immediately halve the deficit.
David Moyes had replaced Ward-Prowse and Kalvin Phillips with Michail Antonio and Edson Alvarez at half time. It proved an effective decision as Antonio broke away down the left and crossed for Lucas Paqueta, whose curled effort flashed narrowly wide of the post.
The Hammers had a massive chance to level when Bowen found Kudus on the left-hand side of the box. The Ghanian set himself up for what looked to be a certain goal, but he smashed the shot over the bar.
With 85 minutes on the clock, the Irons thought they had finally equalised as Paqueta's free kick was chested down by Antonio to substitute Danny Ings, who chipped it over goalkeeper Trafford.
However the striker's first Premier League goal in over a year would be ruled out by VAR, due to Antonio being marginally offside from the initial delivery.
Still Ings would get his first league goal in more than 12 months with the game in the second of eight added-on minutes. Kudus crossed for the English striker, who struck an excellent volley with his back to goal.
Both sides had big chances to win it in the closing minutes. An unchallenged Sander Berge fired over the bar from the edge of the box and Danny Ings had a half-volley ricochet off the bar from an Aaron Cresswell free-kick.
In the dying seconds of what had been an action-packed second half, there was one final controversial moment as Berge looked to have handled the ball it in the box. West Ham - and the majority of the London Stadium appealed - but neither the referee or the VAR team saw fit to give the decision.
Alphonse Areola saved the home side at the death - once again - as Berge layed a clever ball off to Josh Brownhill who looked certain to score. But, the French keeper made himself big and thwarted the effort to ensure the score remained 2-2.
The game ended with several West Ham players on the ground following a chaotic second half. The Hammers now have a huge game in Europe to look forward to as they seek to overturn the 1-0 defeat in the first leg against Freiburg at the London Stadium on Thursday.
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Alphonse AreolaCouldn't do much for Burnley's two goals and kept us in it with an excellent save to deny Brownhill at the end.
Vladimir Coufal
A solid performance from the Czech international who found himself in some good positions to cross throughout the game.
Aaron Cresswell
Not a bad performance from West Ham's longest serving player considering he hasn't played that often this season.
Nayef Aguerd
Average performance from the Moroccan as it was evident that he was coming back a injury, some good diagonals balls to Jarrod Bowen and Mohamed Kudus.
Konstantinos Mavropanos
Kept misplacing his passes and that free kick one that was aimed for Cresswell was particularly bad. One of his worst performances in a West Ham shirt.
Kalvin Phillips
At fault for the first goal and inaccurate with his passing. Correctly brought off at half time by David Moyes.
Tomas Soucek
Another great performance from the lanky midfielder as he was great at winning the ball back in the midfield and getting to headers first in the final third.
James Ward-Prowse
Terrible performance from the midfielder and that probably ends his chances of going to EURO 2024 with Gareth Southgate in attendance. Playing him out of position doesn't help him either.
Lucas Paqueta
Apart from the goal he didn't do much in the game in a similar performance to Freiburg mid-week.
Mohammed Kudus
The Ghanian was our brightest player in the first half on the right hand side and again looked dangerous in the second half when he was switched to the left hand side.
Jarrod Bowen
Looked dangerous in spells and his work rate cannot be questioned but he struggled to get into the right positions to score.
Substitutes
Michail Antonio(Replaced Ward-Prowse, 46) The striker was the catalyst to our comeback as he gave us the outlet to hit it over the top and let him run in behind. His best performance since coming back from injury.
Edson Alvarez
(Replaced Phillips, 46) Some crucial tackles towards the end of the game to prevent Burnley from having a shot on goal. Our midfield doesn't function without him in there.
Danny Ings
(Replaced Aguerd, 82) Great finish for the disallowed goal and the equaliser and was unlucky not to score a winner right at the end.
Lukasz Fabianski
Did not play.
Ben Johnson
Did not play.
Angelo Ogbonna
Did not play.
Kurt Zouma
Did not play.
George Earthy
Did not play.
Divin Mubama
Did not play.
Match Facts
West Ham United: Alphonse Areola, Vladimir Coufal, Aaron Cresswell, Nayef Aguerd, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Kalvin Phillips, Tomas Soucek, James Ward-Prowse, Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen.Goals: Lucas Paqueta 46 Danny Ings 90 .
Booked: None.
Sent off: None.
Burnley: Trafford, Assignon, O'Shea, Estève, Taylor, Berge, Cullen, Bruun Larsen (Brownhill 46), Vitinho (Gudmundsson 90+3), Odobert (Delcroix 68), Fofana.
Subs not used: Muric, Cork, Rodriguez, Manuel, Amdouni, Trésor, Delcroix.
Goals: Fofana (11), Mavropanos (45+1).
Booked: Assignon, Delcroix, Berge, Estève.
Sent off: None.
Referee: Darren England.
Attendance: 62,441.
Man of the Match: Danny Ings.