West Ham United win Europa Conference League title: Key stats
What's the story
West Ham United have won the UEFA Europa Conference League 2022-23 honor by beating Fiorentina 2-1. With this win, the Hammers ended their 43-year wait for a major trophy as Jarrod Bowen scored a last-minute goal in Prague. Said Benrahma's second-half penalty was canceled out just seven minutes later by Giacomo Bonaventura. However, Bowen's goal at the death handed West Ham success.
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West Ham to play in the Europa League next season
The victory means West Ham will play in next season's UEFA Europa League. It also means European football for the third year running and for the first time in the club's history. West Ham reached the Europa League semi-finals last season.
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Third major European final
This was the third major European final for West Ham in their club's history. Before this, the last time they reached a major European final was back in 1975-76 in the Cup Winner's Cup. They won the same tournament in 1964-65 against 1860 Munich.
Records
Unique individual records for Bowen and Bonaventura
As per Opta, Bowen is the first Englishman to score the winning goal in a major European final since Alan Smith for Arsenal in the 1994 Cup Winners's Cup final against Parma. Fiorentina's Bonaventura is the oldest Italian scorer in a major European final (33 years, 289 days) since 36-year-old Paolo Maldini for AC Milan vs Liverpool in the 2005 Champions League final.
Hammers
West Ham end campaign unbeaten
Including qualifiers, West Ham remained unbeaten in all 15 of their games in the Europa Conference League this season (W14 D1). As per Opta, the last English side to have a longer unbeaten run in Europe was Chelsea in 2018-2019 (16 games). West Ham won more games in the ECL (12) than in the Premier League this season (11), creating a new record.
Journey
A solid journey for West Ham
West Ham won their Conference League two-legged playoff round 6-1 on aggregate to qualify for the main round. The Hammers topped Group B, winning all six matches to reach the round of 16 where they trounced AEK Larnaca 6-0 on aggregate. In the quarters, David Moyes's team beat Gent 5-2 on aggregate. In the semis, they overcame AZ Alkmaar 3-1 on aggregate.
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Moyes tastes success
With tonight's victory for West Ham over Fiorentina, the Europa Conference League is the first major trophy Moyes has won in his managerial career. It was his 1,097th match in management.