(Football news) In the 2023–24 Europa League group stage, Freiburg and West Ham faced off twice, with West Ham United coming out on top both times. However, on March 7, their next visitors obtained a potentially huge bit of retribution at the Europa-Park Stadion.
The ball struck Noah Weisshaupt’s outstretched arm inside the penalty area deep into second-half injury time, but West Ham were incensed. The match had gone 80 minutes without a goal when Michael Gregoritsch steered Roland Sallai’s mishit drive into the back of Lukasz Fabianski’s net.To avenge last week’s opening match, in which David Moyes’s team was dubiously denied a late penalty, the German team travels to the English capital with a 1-0 advantage.
Referee Alejandro Hernandez belatedly made his way to the screen – which almost always precedes a penalty being given – but to Moyes’s bewilderment and fury, the official stuck with his on-field decision, forcing West Ham to do it the hard way on Thursday night.
The Europa Conference League champions certainly did it the hard way on Sunday afternoon, though, fighting back from two goals down against Burnley to force a 2-2 draw in the Premier League, thereby making it seven points from their last nine in the top flight as a rare Danny Ings strike completed the turnaround.
The hosts’ run without a clean sheet in all tournaments may now stand at 11 matches, but they have only shipped six goals in their last 10 European home games – all of which have ended in victory – although the last continental visitor to prevail at the London Stadium were Freiburg’s German colleagues Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2021-22 semi-finals.
The most superstitious Freiburg supporters took heart from the fact that Die Adler went on to win the Europa League that year. They are currently just 90 minutes away from making it to the quarterfinals of a major European competition, a first for the 120-year-old team.
The Freiburg team, managed by Christian Streich, had two excellent Bundesliga results either side of their first-leg victory against the Hammers in the 2022–2023 campaign. The team made its Europa League debut in the final stages of the competition, but ultimately lost 3-0 on aggregate to Juventus.
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