In the fifth section of our 2021/22 season review, we take a look at how the Hammers fared during the Spring - when European competition came back onto the horizon in remarkable fashion...
March
The Irons’ FA Cup hopes were dashed on the first day of March as Southampton emerged 3-1 fifth-round winners at St Mary’s Stadium, despite having the better of the chances.
But they recovered to mount a spirited performance at Anfield, as Liverpool scored a 1-0 Premier League victory after the Hammers spurned enough chances to come away with at least a draw.
And so attentions returned to the continental stage, the Irons paired in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 with six-time winners – and competition favourites – Sevilla.
What ensued was a tie nobody affiliated with this West Ham United generation will ever forget.
The Andalusian city was a sea of Claret and Blue ahead of kick-off as thousands of West Ham supporters congregated in the warm sunshine, before strolling to Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán Stadium, to witness a fiercely-contested 1-0 first-leg defeat.
One week later, Tomáš Souček and Andriy Yarmolenko wrote their names into West Ham United folklore.
The duo were on target as the Irons secured a famous 2-0 victory to reach their first European quarter-final since 1981.
That all took place in front of the biggest-ever West Ham attendance in history, with over 59,000 Hammers fans making up more than 98 per cent of the crowd.
The wall of noise that greeted the victory was quite unlike anything ever heard in Stratford before.
It was the culmination of an emotional week at London Stadium after Yarmolenko, on his first appearance in Claret and Blue since being granted compassionate leave in the midst of the Ukraine crisis, came off the bench to inspire his team to a 2-1 win over Aston Villa.
March might have ended with a 3-1 loss away at Tottenham, but the Hammers faithful knew the best was yet to come.
April
Premier League sides competing for a top-four place struggled to establish any form of domestic consistency in April, and West Ham were seemingly no exception to that trend.
A 2-1 win over Everton - with Aaron Cresswell netting a direct free-kick and Jarrod Bowen scoring on his first game back from injury - was followed at home by a vexing 1-1 draw with Burnley.
Away, London derby defeats came at the hands of Brentford and Chelsea, the latter with a heavily-rotated squad in preparation for European commitments - yet despite several key injuries, David Moyes' men continued to challenge at the top end of the table.
But Hammers hearts had been stolen by the Europa League.
Pitched against Olympique Lyonnais in the quarter-finals, the Hammers held their opponents heroically in the first leg, Bowen’s finish securing a 1-1 draw despite playing the entire second half with ten men.
Then, travelling to France, the Irons produced a performance for the ages - one later voted Best Team Performance at the 2021/22 Betway Hammer of the Year Awards, and rightly so.
Goals from Craig Dawson, Rice and Bowen all but silenced a hitherto-raucous Parc Olympique Lyonnais, a 3-0 win - in scarcely-believable fashion - putting the Hammers into their first major European semi-final in 46 years.
And that, too, would prove quite the showpiece occasion, the first leg being the Irons' final match of a busy April programme.
Paired with Eintracht Frankfurt, the Bundesliga side whom the Irons defeated at the same stage of their journey to their last European final in 1976, the Hammers' dreams were fuelled by a sensational atmosphere in and around east London throughout an unforgettable week.
Sadly, the first leg of the semi-final did not go their way at London Stadium.
The Hammers hit the woodwork three times and were ultimately left to rue those missed chances as an efficient Eintracht side scored at the start of both halves, winning 2-1, despite Michail Antonio's equaliser midway through the first half.
Going into the final month of the season, however, the Hammers remained in contention to qualify for European football through their league position for the first time ever in back-to-back seasons - as well as just one goal behind heading into the second leg of a continental semi-final.
As we'll look into next time, there remained all to play for in May...
