West Ham recently progressed into the second round of qualifying for the 2015/2016 Europa League and for me it began with a bit of a whimper.
A 4-0 aggregate win over Andorran part timers FC Lusitans did the job and for a squad who in the most part hadn’t reached the age of 21 they gained some good experience. With the team that started the home leg I would have expected a much better return than three goals and I think that was a view shared by the other 35,000 people in the Boleyn ground on 2nd July.
Furthermore, I would’ve expected players like Matt Jarvis and Mauro Zarate, players with real points to prove to the fans, to have got in on the act. Most fans had high expectations but were only disappointed by 40mins of frustration and the ‘excitement’ of three goals against what were essentially pub team players.
However, the youth of our squad look to be fairly well equipped in being able to help Slaven Bilic and his entourage in their quest to return to the’ West Ham way’, particularly Oxford, Josh Cullen and goal-scorer Elliot Lee accompanied by adopted youngster Diego Poyet who looked a composed figure in the first game. Moreover, we did achieve the main priority of actually progressing in the competition and we did it without any major defensive mishaps and without injuries which can only be good news.
So with the first round over and done with what exactly should we expect from our second round tie against Maltese team Birkirkara? The club are based in an incredibly humid and sparsely populated area of Malta with the town only yielding a population of 22,247 people but they will be looking to progress as far as possible in this competition prompting me to ask how much should we be worried about the team?
Upon a brief thinking time of maybe 2 seconds I concluded that in all honesty we shouldn’t expect to be desperately challenged by the 65-year-old side and in my eyes we should be attempting to get a large return, as I believe at this early stage we are the best team in the tournament and should be flouting that fact.
Birkirkara FC are one of the founding members of the Maltese top flight and can boast four league titles since its inauguration with the latest coming in 2012/2013. They finished last season in third behind Hibernians and Valetta with the latter knocked out of the first qualifying round of the Europa League by welsh minnows Newtown. From a West Ham point of view it should be approached for what it is, a chance to just flex our muscles against a minnow of European football. After all, the game Birkirkara won to get to this stage was their first ever European away win so even with our lack of European pedigree this should be reasonably simple although we are West Ham and so won’t take anything for granted and I even take my own optimism with a pinch of salt!
One thing the Maltese outfit can hold above the Hammers is their singular champions league round win (A 7-3 win over Romanians FC Santa Coloma in 2010-2011). Furthermore, Birkirkara, like West Ham, are true to their nation typically when appointing a manager. They, like us, have only had less than a handful of foreign managers with their current boss Paul Zammit in his second spell at the helm of the club.
For the Maltese team nicknamed ‘the stripes’ the only player of possible recognition to us Hammers fans would be the hero of the second leg against Armenian side FC Ulisses, Fabrizio Miccoli. The Italian spent many a year plying his trade in the Italian Serie A and is probably the biggest threat that Birkirkara have in their ranks, offering much more than any player from the Lusitans squad did. The man himself boasts 10 appearances for his national team as well as over a hundred career goals. However, at the age of 36 I would like to believe even our youthful defence of the first round could deal with this threat.
I think a straightforward win against FC Lusitans will be followed up with a similar performance against Birkirkara FC and we will then begin to see some of the bigger teams of qualifying turn up with the tournament soon taking shape.
I predict a 5-1 win over two legs in favour of the Irons in a round which will be Slaven’s first competitive games in the Boleyn dugout. Also, given his recent performance against Peterborough, Martin Samuelson should look to get in on the act after his impressive display against the Posh.
If i am honest, West ham should qualify with ease. Being a West Ham fan myself it is easy for me to say that, but i think i am talking for everyone when i say if West ham do not qualify for the group stages, slaven bilic won’t get as good a reception on the first day of the prem.
if we don’t progress it doesn’t look good for the season. im confident we can have a good run in the cups and secure a top half finish
As an ex-pat Englishman in Malta are only wish is that the Hammers don’t get too far out of sight in the first leg. Let’s give the Birkirkara faithful (That’ll be anyone whose ever seen Barclays Premier League on telly and will be at the match for the first ever competitive match with a premier league side) some hope to cling to.
The match is being played at the national stadium (18,000 capacity!) and I imagine will be pretty full.
Don’t worry though lads, the standard of Maltese football is ‘pants’ (Official UEFA description), the only possible stumbling block is the heat, which will be 26c at the time the match is played, but in all honestly you should be so far out of site by the time that kicks in it won’t matter.
And do bring some fans, Malta is a holiday resort in the summer, you’ll love it! (trays of 12 tequila shots at £7 anyone…?)
geez, you should work for the Maltese tourism dept mate
First of all don’t under estimate Birkirkara and secondly their new coach is Giovanni Tedesco (ex Perugia and Palermo player) and not Paul Zammit. Paul Zammit is now coaching Valletta.
There have been a few negative articles put out about West Ham’s performances in the Europa League so far, well let me remind everyone, that for a Premier League season past that lasted almost 10 months & with the 1st Europa League fixture coming just 39 days after everyone needed a well-earned rest, and with half of the squads fielded consisting of around 50% reserve team players, and with a new manager settling in, well I reckon that the club hasn’t done too badly. Everyone has to admit that continued membership of the Premier League is “everything”, so to have rested so many 1st squad players and to still progress, then we have achieved, and to progress to the 3rd qualifying round looks highly likely, as one has to remember that for the entire 1st leg of the 2nd round, Birkirkara only managed 1 shot at goal and even that was off target. The 1 goal that we scored means that the opposition will now have to be drawn out in their efforts to try and survive the tie, and with only 1 shot off target to their credit so far, and with us managing 14 of which half were on target, then all’s we really have to do is defend on mass and maybe hit them on the break, all’s we have to is score 1 more and they’ll have to score 3 to avoid being eliminated, and for a team that’s only had 1 shot at goal off target, we are looking good. Looking good for what? I say that because it is looking highly likely, unless Inverness lift their game in Romania, that we’ll be facing Astra in Romania for the 2nd leg of a 3rd round tie, less than 3 days before we kick off our Premier League season at the Emirates. To be quite honest, I think we be sitting pretty for the Arsenal game if we were eliminated in the 2nd leg of our 2nd round Europa tie, but that really isn’t looking on, so I suppose we’ll have to do justice and pay respect to EUFA by progressing to this 3rd round tie, even though that will mean a long trip to Romania less than 3 days before the Arsenal game. Look, we are there, the squad now has depth and is there, and now I feel the right manager for the Premier League and the Europa League is there, and next season we’ll be in the stadium to die for, so get behind your club and stop belly aching OK?