A lack of efficiency in front of goal proved costly for West Ham United U23s on Wednesday evening, according to lead coach Dmitri Halajko.
The Hammers made another bright start to the Premier League International Cup game at Rush Green Stadium, taking an early lead when Joe Powell’s free-kick from out wide went through a crowd of bodies and found the far corner of the net after 13 minutes.
Wolfsburg’s ‘B’ team featured no shortage of talent, however, and the visitors turned things around within the following twenty minutes as Julian Justvan bent in a brilliant finish from 25 yards and Jesaja Herrmann nodded in at the far post.
The U23s struck an equaliser just before half-time through a clever set-piece routine finished off by Anthony Scully, but it was not to be their night, Justvan smashing in a fantastic finish with two minutes remaining to send all three points back to Germany.
Halajko spoke afterwards of his satisfaction with his team’s showing, simply citing end product as the decisive factor in the game.
“Performance-wise, we’re not too disappointed in our overall showing,” Halajko said. “It was a really close and competitive game, and I thought our performance deserved more.
“I thought we were probably the better team apart from inside the penalty boxes, where they were more clinical than us. They had three, maybe four chances, and were very good in those areas. We had seven or eight chances and only converted two.
“We felt we were the dominant team and just the work inside the penalty boxes let us down tonight.”
Our performance was worthy of a win... their finishing was of a real high level – ours was not quite there tonight.
Dmitri Halajko
An absorbing end-to-end contest played out at Rush Green Stadium as both young teams looked to secure their second win of the tournament’s group stage.
Highlights: West Ham United U23s 2-3 Wolfsburg 'B'
The see-saw contest ultimately ended in favour of Wolfsburg 'B', but Halajko feels his squad deserved more from the game.
“Our performance was worthy of a win,” he observed. “They weren’t superior to us.
“I thought the first half was pretty even but in the second half we were the dominant team. They were dangerous on the break which we knew they would be, and their finishing was of a real high level – ours was not quite there tonight.”
Moving forwards, Halajko will hope his team bounce back from tonight’s defeat when they look to extend their unbeaten Premier League 2 Division 2 run at Swansea on Sunday lunchtime.
The lead coach feels the crucial lesson from tonight’s game is simple: be more clinical in front of goal.
He said: “We need to keep moving the ball the way we are, but also make sure that if we have another game where we create as many chances as that, we come away winning it.
“We can’t be as dominant as that and play well, and then lose a game of football. That’s not preparing us for where we want to be.”
