Jarrod Bowen says West Ham United are driven by making sure European football remains a fixture at London Stadium throughout the 2022/23 season ahead of Thursday's UEFA Europa Conference League play-off round second leg.
David Moyes’ men will take a crucial two-goal advantage to Viborg FF after a 3-1 victory in the first leg at the London Stadium.
Bowen capped a professional display in the reverse fixture with his first strike of the new season. The No20 arrowed the Hammers’ second goal of the night into bottom corner from distance, with strikers Gianluca Scamacca and Michail Antonio also on the scoresheet.
Ahead of the second leg, the England forward said that the Irons were confident, but refused to underestimate Viborg, who Moyes’ outfit play for a place in the Europa Conference league group-stage draw, which takes place on Friday 26 August.
Bowen also talked about the new signings at West Ham, and how he has been impressed by the recruitment this summer, as well as how the side can kickstart the campaign...
We’re all focused on our match with Viborg.
It’s not been the start we wanted [in the Premier League], so this tie is important for us. We've got a good lead, and we want to make sure we comfortably get the job done and get into the group stage. We want to bring European football to the stadium for the fans.
We learned a lot about Viborg in the first leg.
We’ve got a two-goal lead going into the away game, which is a comfortable lead for us. But we've got to be respectful of the opposition. We saw their threats when we played them at our place. We know at their place they’ll have a good following behind them, and they'll create a good atmosphere. We’ve got to be clever. We’re two goals up. We’ve got to do nothing silly to give them a leg back up.
The season hasn't started the way we wanted it.
We won last week so there’s confidence from that and then to win on Thursday night as well would give us good confidence going into the Aston Villa game. We’ve got a lot of games coming up so I think it's about momentum and putting good performances in and winning football games.
It's not been the start we've wanted and not the start that we expect from ourselves as a team as a collective whole. But we are just three games in, not 30, and there's still a lot of time to pick up the results that that we need.
From the expectations and the standards that we've set over the past two years is high. It will turn, and we can enjoy good moments again together.
I was delighted to see Angelo return.
Before the game, everybody was wishing Ogbonna well, and I am just happy to see him see him back out there. He had a horrible injury, one that you never want to see to any player, but especially with him being a teammate as well, who has done so much for the club and been here for so long.
To see him come through it and come through it well, and get a good hour under his belt, I was delighted and I'm sure he was a bit emotional after the game coming back.
We lost a few players last year, so it was important to replace them.
I think we've replaced them really well. The players look really good. They haven't come straight into the team yet, which is understandable. Coming into a new team and playing under a new manager, and new systems, but we've integrated them solely in the European games.
They’ve come off the bench in the Premier League as well. I think it's an exciting future. I think we've got some good signings in.
What I have seen of Gianluca Scamacca has been really positive.
He’s a centre forward and gives that competition to Michail Antonio as well, which is I think you need in every team. There’s competition for places because you're always on it. I think it brings training up another level and everyone's on it because if you're not pulling your weight, then someone's going to be stepping into your position.
I've enjoyed playing with Gianluca and I was delighted for him that he scored last week. I’m positive he’ll score many more goals.
