West Ham through to the quarter finals of the Europa League

 West Ham through to the quarter finals of the Europa League

Football has a strange habit of drawing you into its inner circle, its private conversations, its fascinating emotional contrasts, the ups and downs of the game clearly encapsulated in 90 minutes of certainty and then uncertainty. It veers from the sublime to the ridiculous but we know everything there is to know about those swinging pendulums, those intriguing sub plots, the suspension of belief and then the wild vicissitudes where the game just seems to adopt a mind of its own. It's unpredictable and gloriously exciting and we wouldn't have it any other way. The result can never be predicted and that's how it should be.

Last night your claret and blue team from the East End of London wandered into alien territory and found themselves lost in a world of triumphant elation that can never be measured and assessed in the heat of the moment. We thought we may have been imagining this unfolding scenario where football does indeed become a theatrical production where tension and drama merge into one and the leading actors love to keep you guessing.

West Ham United reached their third consecutive quarter finals of a major and highly prestigious European competition and some of us were simply pinching ourselves in case it was just an illusion or some phantom event that never really happened. Last Sunday West Ham could only salvage a point from their Premier League fixture against relegation haunted Burnley who are now stuck in a rut and rapidly going nowhere. They're now basement dwellers at the bottom of the Premier League who should be enjoying a much healthier season back in the top flight but are now consigned to a grisly fate that even they couldn't have anticipated.

Four days though after a London Stadium painstaking struggle, West Ham were back on home ground again and after trailing to a first leg goal in Germany last week, the Hammers were almost electrified, transformed, revived and re-energised. It almost felt as if somebody had flicked a switch and sparked them back into life again. Sometimes following West Ham can often seem like Chinese water torture, an unbearable ordeal that has to be negotiated and endured because this is just their default mechanism. 

What we saw from West Ham was a side who had forgotten who they were last week, determined to prove to hardened cynics that their powers of resilience hadn't deserted them in their moment of need. Against the Germans of Freiberg the London Stadium team hit back strongly at their opponents as if a thousand wasps had stung them and there was a natural obligation to give their supporters a night to remember. Within the space of an opening 45 minutes, Freiberg were blown away, wiped out, completely overwhelmed.

This season the home team had veered from the awful and mediocre, to joyously entertaining and thrillingly fluent. This is not to suggest that a split personality should be the diagnosis but there has been an air of a team stumbling around in the dark before emerging into the clear light of day. You almost feel as if West Ham should be rudely disturbed from their sleep at the beginning of any game. At some point they are shaken from their torpor and somebody reminds of them where they are in the context of a season.

The severe and ruthless 6-0 mauling by Arsenal at the London Stadium a couple of weeks ago left even the most devoted West Ham fan dumbfounded and speechless. Then Nottingham Forest rubbed salt into festering wounds with a 2-0 victory over the East London side at the City Ground. By then things had become fairly toxic in the East End of London and the natives were restless. Thankfully West Ham have now put safe distance from the normally impending threat of relegation so there was no need for panic stations. But last night seemed to mark another pivotal point in West Ham's season of volatility for a while and then sheer exhilaration in the next breath.

Once again the central defensive pairing of Kurt Zouma and Konstotinas Mavropanos buttressed their home side's defence with stubborn resistance on the rare occasion that Freiberg threatened West Ham's equilibrium, figures of reassuring balance and poise. From the moment the referee blew the whistle at the start of the game, West Ham came flying out of the blocks like men on a mission. The tall and imposing midfield assurance of Tomas Soucek and Edson Alvarez joined forces with positivity and streetwise intelligence while the powerful attacking trio of Michal Antonio, the ever improving Jarred Bowen and the classical bravado of Mohammed Kudus ensured the game was up for Freiberg after half an hour.

West Ham were quick witted, fleet footed, sharper in the transitions between defence and attack and economical in their choice of passing. This may not have been the kind of football that West Ham supporters would have taken to their heart and might have been accustomed to under John Lyall and Ron Greenwood over 40 years ago but the same kind of narratives could now convert the fans. Arsenal, who joined West Ham in their advancement to the quarter final of a European competition with a last eight place in the Champions League, have set a most exquisite template with their delectable one touch football. But then again West Ham will always be West Ham and familiarity could work in their favour.

Brazilian midfield magician Lucas Paqueta, who would be substituted in the second half much to his annoyance, popped up at the far post to prod home West Ham's first and equalising corner  and then the goals flowed like dripping honey for West Ham. Aaron Cresswell, now a long serving stalwart at the London Stadium, finished off a stunning break and exchange of passes with a low, firmly struck shot from just outside the penalty area. A third goal had now put the game well beyond the Germans reach and then there emerged the goal of the night.

Muhammed Kudus, quite the most inspired signing West Ham manager David Moyes has ever made from Ajax, scored the most sensational goal ever seen at the London Stadium. He picked up the ball on the centre circle and then just glided beautifully past a whole series of Freiberg's legs, dribbling the ball past opponent after opponent as if they were just apparitions, slotting the ball into the net as if he'd performed that amusing party piece wherever he'd gone.

And so it is that some of us began to believe in the impossible. It is almost a year after West Ham's by now celebrated victory in the Euro Conference League Final in Prague and although you may be inclined towards wishful thinking, there remains a possibility that the once famous underachievers in world football may now be within only two matches away from another European Final. The chances are that the highly esteemed likes of Liverpool, Roma, Benfica and Marseille may have something to say about that. But for at least one night in the middle of March, hope could spring eternal. Watch this space even if sober perspective has to be kept at all times.