David Moyes was satisfied that his West Ham United team did not let a below-par performance turn into a defeat in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-final at KAA Gent.
The Hammers struggled to get to grips with their lively Belgian hosts and were happy enough to secure a 1-1 draw by the end of 90 minutes, with Hugo Cuypers having cancelled out Danny Ings’ close-range opener.
While Moyes conceded the Hammers could have been far better in possession throughout at the KAA Gent Stadium, he did point to the positives around his team’s resilience and willingness to dig in to preserve parity ahead of the second leg.
With the prospect of a bumper London Stadium crowd behind the Hammers in a week’s time, the boss remains confident that a second successive continental semi-final is within reach.
Gent were more competitive tonight than we were.
They won too many first and second balls and then when we had the chances to play, we didn’t play well enough on the ball.
But overall, look, would I have taken a draw? All day long, because this is a side who have some momentum, they were seven unbeaten coming into the game, so it was never going to be easy.
You know what it’s like in cup competitions, it’s not the favourites who always make it.
You have to work really hard to do so and in the end I was pleased to get a draw.
We had a lot of decisions tonight which didn’t go in our favour which could certainly have changed the game, but hopefully the home tie, with the crowd behind us, we’ll have a chance.
I’m pleased to score at that time [just before half-time] because we had a goal chalked off just before.
To get the goal, and I have to be honest, we didn’t play well enough to make [enough of] those opportunities, so getting that goal gave us something to hang on to. Danny Ings is very much a penalty box striker and he proved it tonight.
I thought we defended okay, [but we had to] keep it and find a way of getting a second goal.
Gent are a threat. I think people sometimes think teams at this [UEFA Conference League] level are not good but they’re all good teams.
There are very few poor teams when you get to the quarter-finals and you’re down to the last eight.
People have worked really hard all season to get to this point and they don’t want to give it up. I think Gent showed that.
I remember coming away from Seville and we were disappointed to lose 1-0 [in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 first leg last season], but we knew we had a chance.
We’d get the crowd behind us and we won it in extra-time. We’ve got a big game next Thursday now to try and reach the semi-finals, so let’s hope we can do that.
