Dinos Mavropanos was able to reflect on an impressive performance on both sides of the ball after West Ham United cruised to a 2-0 win over SC Freiburg on Thursday night.
The Irons secured top spot in UEFA Europa League Group A thanks to a brace of eye-catching first half goals from Mohammed Kudus and Edson Álvarez and a third successive European clean sheet.
Mavropanos enjoyed every aspect of the performance as his team ensured they would finish top of their European group for a third straight year, becoming just the sixth English club to achieve that in the process.
For the Greece defender, sealing first place and avoiding February’s knockout play-off round was a case of job done.
“It was a really good performance,” he explained. “I think we really good with the ball, [really good] defensively as well, and we finished the group stages strongly to go through to the knockout games.
“It was important to top the group because it means you’re in a better position when it comes to the knockout stages.
“Freiburg are strong, but I think tonight we had it under control. We held the ball quite well, we moved in-between the lines in midfield and we kept a clean sheet, so I think it was really impressive.”
Mavropanos had an excellent view of the first half goals which sealed victory, too, as Álvarez laid on Kudus’ opener and then the Mexican exchanged passes with Jarrod Bowen to finish himself.
The No15 feels the flowing football that led to those strikes will help build the team’s confidence further as the hectic winter schedule continues.
“The goals were really good from the beginning to the end and it was nice to score twice in the first half,” he added. “That gave us more confidence for the second half as well.
“The movement in midfield was really good and helped us to build up from the back, creating spaces between the lines.
“We have really important games coming up and we have to look after ourselves because we have many games [in this spell]. We have to be prepared.”
