West Ham United are certainly enjoying the good times under David Moyes!
The Scotsman’s second spell in charge of the London Stadium outfit appears to have paid off incredibly as the manager has rediscovered the work that he managed to achieve at Everton and has turned the Hammers into a force that is to be reckoned with.
The Irons are enjoying themselves in the Premier League at the moment and are flying high after going unbeaten in their first three matches of the season, with some hoping that they will continue with the momentum being gained for as long as possible.
Indeed, there will be many who will be looking at West Ham as a team that could provide them with some rather generous odds when betting through the sites available at sportskokladenje24, although there will be some that want to ensure it happens when their European adventure gets underway.
The club have been drawn against Dinamo Zagreb, Genk and Rapid Wien in Group H of this season’s UEFA Europa League competition and whilst it would appear as though they have a great chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the tournament, the Hammers’ faithful will be all too aware of what has happened when continental football comes to east London.
Since the turn of the millennium, West Ham have managed to qualify on four occasions, but have been embarrassed on each of the times that they have participated.
Whilst the 1999/00 season started well with success in the Intertoto Cup where they beat Finnish side FC Jokerit and Dutch outfit SC Heerenveen. West Ham narrowly lost the home leg of the final 1-0 to Metz but they managed to win the return leg convincingly 3-1 at the Saint-Symphorien Stadium under Harry Redknapp’s guidance.
Those wins qualified them for the UEFA Cup competition, which saw them get past Croatians NK Osijek 6-1 on aggregate but a second-round exit was provided by Romanian side Steaua Bucharest following a 2-0 defeat and 0-0 at home.
2006/07 saw Alan Pardew’s side qualify for the UEFA Cup after getting to the FA Cup Final, but they went out in the first round to Palermo, despite having Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano available after their shock move.
2015/16 was not much better for the Hammers, as they were knocked out in the second qualifying round to Romanian side Astra Giurgiu after defeating Andorran side Lusitanos. Ironically, a red card for James Collins cost them against the Romanians after the club had topped the ‘Fair Play’ charts a year before.
After Manchester City helped the Irons to get into the first qualifying stage of the UEFA Europa League a year later, deja vu would have been experienced by West Ham as they went up against Astra Giurgiu again. They had already beaten NK Domzale of Slovenia in a tie of two stories before the familiar faces turned up again before inflicting the same outcome on them.
