Aaron Cresswell couldn’t hide his delight after he scored his first West Ham United goal in 59 games on Thursday evening, having not netted since 3 April 2022 against Everton.
The Hammers recorded their biggest ever European win as they swept away SC Freiburg 5-0 - and 5-1 on aggregate - to book their spot in a third consecutive continental quarter-final.
Cresswell, who has had to play more of an understudy role this season, scored the Irons’ third of the night to put daylight between the sides, when his sweetly struck effort from just inside the box went into the bottom right corner.
And the left-back enjoyed being a part of another special night under the lights at London Stadium, and being able to positively contribute to David Moyes’ side.
“I enjoyed that - it was a big game and I’m delighted to help the team," Cresswell said. "It was a great performance and result, so it was a perfect night all round.
“We’ve had big European nights before – the one that sticks out is Sevilla – it kind of felt like that going into the game 1-0 down.
"I felt the crowd were tremendous straight from the off. The performance from the start was brilliant, I thought we had the press spot on. We nullified them and created a few chances, and we could have scored more.
“From everyone who came on to the pitch – the starting XI and everyone involved was brilliant. It was a great night, and we’ve managed to make it three quarter-finals in three years.”
West Ham United were drawn to face Bayer Leverkusen in the 2023/24 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals during Friday's draw in Nyon, Switzerland.
The Hammers will take on the German Bundesliga leaders in a two-legged tie, and Cresswell hopes he and his West Ham teammates can continue their impressive European run, while also harbouring ambitions of going two steps further than their agonising defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-finals of the same competition two years ago.
However, attention turns to league action when West Ham welcome Aston Villa to east London on Sunday, and the defender has urged his side to finish strongly with the international break looming.
"We’ve had some highs and lows, and certainly last summer topped that, winning the Europa Conference League," said Cresswell.
"It was a special night that will live long in the memory of everyone associated with the Club. I’m so happy for everyone involved – it’s a massive part of our history and hopefully we can have more nights like that.
"We've got to go again on Sunday, and like with any international break, you want to finish that round with a good win or result.
"If we can do that on Sunday it would be fantastic, but I think there are ten or eleven games to go in the league and we’re in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, so things are looking good. We’ve got to take that momentum into the next game, rest up in the international break and keep looking forward."
