A second-half penalty from Saïd Benrahma followed by a late Michail Antonio strike wiped out Tijjani Reijnders 42nd-minute opener at London Stadium to give the Hammers victory on a night when David Moyes’ men also had to contend with the most curious of curious refereeing decisions plus some Dutch dark arts, too.
And while the Hammers will need to perform much better in next week’s return at the AFAS Stadium, they remain in the box-seat to reach next month’s final in Prague against Italy’s Fiorentina or Swiss-outfit Basel, who won tonight’s other semi-final by the same 2-1 scoreline.
This was the 13th match of the Hammers UEFA Conference League campaign and, having already despatched Danish sides Viborg FF and Silkeborg plus FCSB (Romania), Anderlecht (Belgium), AEK Larnaca (Cyprus) and KAA Gent (Belgium) along the way, they now came into the final four of a European competition for the second successive season.
Certainly, having sustained a harrowing hat-trick of domestic defeats, Moyes team could not have come into this eagerly awaited Dutch date in better spirits after producing their best performance of the season just four days earlier.
Crowning the Coronation weekend with a wonderful, well-deserved win over fourth-placed Manchester United (1-0) that sent them a healthy seven points clear of the Premier League relegation zone with three matches left to play, West Ham now had the luxury of turning their full focus towards only the fifth major European semi-final in their history.
With an eager, excited, expectant, East End crowd filling London Stadium to the brim, the Scot made two changes from Sunday night’s victorious line-up as his usual Euro keeper Alphonse Areola came in for Łukasz Fabiański, while fit-again Kurt Zouma replaced the ill Angelo Ogbonna.
Kick-off was greeted with a raucous roar from both sets of supporters and with Jarrod Bowen quickly looking to add to his record Hammers haul of eight European goals, the four-cap England international soon nodded over before then finding himself just a boot or two short of connecting with Antonio’s left-wing centre into the six-yard box.
Then with a dozen minutes on the clock, Benrahma recovered the possession that the Dutch had been yielding all too easily before attempting a low 20-yard curler that an alert Mat Ryan tipped around the base of his left-hand upright.
Alkmaar had started a 16-match European journey of their own against Bosnia & Herzegovina outfit Tuzla City back in July and the 1981 UEFA Cup runners-up now arrived in Stratford having beaten Lazio (Italy) and then Anderlecht in the knockout stages.
Saturday’s goalless draw at second-placed Ajax had left AZ in fourth spot in the Eredivisie and, following that stalemate at the Johann Cruyff Arena, their London-born, Dutch-raised manager – Pascal Jansen – made just one switch with Mees de Wit replacing Milos Kerkez.
De Wit wasted no time marking his call-up by leaving his stud marks on Benrahma at the expense of the game’s first yellow card and, shortly afterwards, Myron van Brederode curled Alkmaar’s first tester of the evening into Areola’s gloves from 20 yards.
In reply, Benrahma sent another long-ranger wide of the left post before the bulldozing Bowen stumbled in the area but despite the predictable protests from everyone in claret and blue, Turkish referee Halil Umut Meler clearly had no intention of pointing to the penalty spot.
As the half-hour mark approached, AZ would have been pleased to have dampened the early Hammers fire with a cocktail of more patient possession and passing and even slower play but after engineering their best move of the contest, to date, Sven Mijnans wastefully spooned over from 15 yards.
Next it was Nayef Aguerd’s turn to try his luck but the central defender’s wayward effort was more of a clearance than a shot and his ambitious 25-yarder simply skewed away for a throw-in.
By now, the challenges were flying in thick and fast but referee Meler appeared to have his own tackling threshold and clearly the Turk had set the highest of high bars in order to actually blow his whistle.
On 42 minutes, the official waved play on following Sam Beukema’s challenge on Lucas Paquetá and, with Reijnders now picking up the pieces, Alkmaar broke quickly forward as the Hammers fruitlessly appealed against the suspected aerial assault on their Brazilian playmaker.
Receiving the ball in the left-hand channel, Van Brederode quickly fed Mijnans, who now laid the ball back into the path of the supporting Reijnders and he let fly with a low 22-yarder that dipped in front of the groping Areola, whose disappointment at letting in the Dutchman’s softish shot was shared by an entire, exasperated East End.
Home advantage now counting for little, Moyes’ men emerged for the second period chasing the tie and a clock that was being cynically run down by those dark arts of the Dutch, who stalled and stuttered the rhythm of contest at every opportunity.
Indeed, after Paquetá was cautioned for a foul on Pantelis Hatzidiakos, referee Meler finally penalised skipper Jordy Clasie for time-wasting before Bowen then fizzed an 18-yarder inches wide.
On 65 minutes, the scales of justice did finally begin to tip in West Ham’s favour when Tomáš Souček outjumped De Wit to send a header goalwards and, flapping under his crossbar, Ryan followed through to catch the leaping Bowen full-on in the face.
That oft-silent whistle now blew to signal a penalty and Ryan predictably protested but the Italian Video Assistant Referee, Paolo Valeri, concurred with his on-field colleague and cool as you like, Benrahma drilled his spot-kick beyond the outstretched right glove of the Aussie keeper and inside the left-hand post.
Parity restored, the home fans in the sell-out crowd breathed a huge sigh of relief their side now had a foothold in this semi-final and, with a quarter-hour remaining, they went one better and claimed the higher ground ahead of next week’s return.
This time, Zouma’s downward header drifted out to Declan Rice at the back of the six-yard box and, cleverly chipping the ball back into the danger-zone, the Hammers skipper saw Aguerd’s point-blank header cleared off the line by Yukinari Sugawara but Antonio was on hand to lash home his 11th goal of the season.
Filled with renewed hope, those home supporters now urged their team to take an even greater cushion across the North Sea to Holland next Thursday (8pm) but Benrahma could only blaze over, while Bowen agonisingly drilled across the six-yard box to leave West Ham a goal to the good but with work still to do in seven days’ time.
West Ham United: Areola, Kehrer, Cresswell, Aguerd, Zouma, Rice, Souček, Paquetá, Benrahma (Fornals 90), Bowen, Antonio (Ings 90). Unused subs: Fabiański, Anang, Johnson, Lanzini, Downes, Cornet, Emerson, Potts, Mubama.
AZ Alkmaar: Ryan, Sugawara, De Wit, Beukema, Hatzidiakos, Clasie, Reijnders, Mijnans, Odgaard (Lahdo 68), Van Brederode (Mihalovic 80), Pavlidis. Unused subs: Verhulst, Deen, Barasi, Bazoer, Vanheusden, Buurmeester, Meerdink, Goes.
Booked: De Wit (16), Paquetá (57) Clasie (58).
Referee: Halil Umut Meler (Turkey).
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