Powerful acceptance speech for best male player at CAF awards matched specially designed agbada for occasion Ademola Lookman couldn’t help reminiscing on Monday night. Crowned best male player at the Confederation of African Football’s award ceremony in Marrakech, thanks in large part to his stunning hat-trick for Atalanta in May’s Europa League final, the Nigeria forward’s acceptance speech referred to one of the lowest moments of his career. It came while Lookman was on a season-long loan at Fulham from RB Leipzig in November 2020 and during injury time of a televised Premier League game against West Ham at the London Stadium. Trailing to a late goal from Tomas Soucek, the visitors were awarded a penalty in the final seconds and Lookman stepped up to take it – only to see his weak Panenka chip loop straight into the arms of Lukasz Fabianski. “I couldn’t even describe the devastation,” Lookman told the Guardian in an interview a few months later. Continue reading...

Goals from Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen gave West Ham a crucial win to increase the pressure on Gary O’Neil Peeeeeeeeeeep! Play gets underway, as bubbles float gently across the pitch. The teams are out! West Ham in their claret and blue, Wolves in their old gold. It’s nice not to see the two teams are they are meant to be. Continue reading...

Pitted against the incompetence of Wolves’ defending, the mediocrity of West Ham’s performance was not enough to bring about the end of Julen Lopetegui’s unhappy reign. Instead it is likely to be Gary O’Neil looking for a new job after his side were beaten by avoidable goals from Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen. Wolves, who have the worst defensive record in the top flight, were on for a point when Matt Doherty equalised. Their inability to defend is why they are in trouble, though. It allowed West Ham to win it for Michail Antonio. This was bound to be a night of heightened emotions after the horror of Antonio’s car crash on Saturday. Although the forward survived, fans cannot help but wonder if he will ever play again after having surgery on a broken leg and it was difficult to know if the shock would affect West Ham’s focus. Continue reading...

On a bitterly cold Tyneside night West Ham finally remembered how to fight back. Even better for their beleaguered manager, Julen Lopetegui, a team inspired by standout performances from Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen exhibited the sort of ruthless precision strangely absent from Newcastle’s game. Expertly taken goals from Soucek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka reinforced Lopetegui’s fragile job security, lifting West Ham to 14th, three points behind Eddie Howe’s team, as Newcastle’s hopes of Champions League qualification sustained a dent. Continue reading...

London calling for West Ham once more but not yet time to yearn for the sanctuary of the provinces. Where the London Stadium is an unhappy home, they remain unbeaten on their early-season tour of their home town. After victory at Crystal Palace and drawing at Fulham came this attritional affair on the capital’s western fringe. Such is the London weighting of this season’s Premier League schedule that the Hammers do not play outside the city limits until 2 November. A midweek Carabao Cup defeat at Liverpool so exasperating that Julen Lopetegui injured himself on the sidelines, allied with his team’s dreadful home form had led to speculation on his future. Would Anfield be his sole match beyond the M25? Continue reading...

Watch Tomas Soucek equalise for Czech Republic against Turkey at Euro 2024.

If Georgia’s stay in Germany does end against Portugal in Gelsenkirchen on Wednesday, oh what fun they have had. Episode two of Georgia’s first European Championship was much like their first, an almighty ball: loud, fraught, dogged and occasionally ridiculous, a Royal Rumble of sorts as they and the Czech Republic tried to earn a priceless win in pursuit of the last 16. Georges Mikautadze scored from the penalty spot to register his second goal of the tournament but Patrik Schick, who was forced off with a calf problem, cancelled out his opener. This was a glorious reminder of how we will miss these days of wall-to-wall action, this the final day of three back-to-back matches at this competition. The Czech Republic’s head coach, Ivan Hasek, predicted this would be anything but a wild game. How wrong he was. The moment of the match in a game of plenty came with 94 minutes and 45 seconds on the clock, 15 seconds of allocated added time to run. The Czechs got carried away and Georgia poured forward on the counter. Suddenly – unbelievably – they were 3 v 1 against the defender Robin Hranac. But the substitute Saba Lobjanidze, with only the goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek to beat, spooned his shot over. The substitutes praying for ecstasy on the touchline collapsed to the floor in disbelief. Six players crashed to the turf at the final whistle seconds later. Continue reading...

Jaroslav Silhavy’s abrupt departure gave Ivan Hasek limited preparation but the Tomas Soucek-led Czechs will be dangerous This article is part of the Guardian’s Euro 2024 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 24 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 14 June. Continue reading...

The burning sense of injustice that coursed through West Ham after being denied the chance to wipe out Freiburg’s slender advantage should not make them look past the failings that left their hopes of salvaging a draw from the first leg of this last-16 tie dependent on the whims of a referee with a curious interpretation of the handball law. Admittedly the fury that greeted Alejandro Hernández not awarding a penalty after Noah Weisshaupt blocked Tomas Soucek’s attempted shot with an outstretched arm deep into stoppage time was understandable. The home crowd roared, perhaps as much out of disbelief as jubilation, and David Moyes fumed. The initial check by the VAR had taken an age and it seemed inevitable that the decision would go against Freiburg when the Spanish official ran over to the pitchside monitor. Continue reading...

No appeals board will save Everton on current form. Sean Dyche’s team may have been lifted by the return of four points on Monday but the psychological release did not transfer to the pitch where West Ham struck twice in stoppage time to inflict a damaging blow on the relegation candidates. An exquisite finish from Tomas Soucek turned the game West Ham’s way in the 91st minute before Edson Álvarez sealed a second win in six days for David Moyes’s improving side. Everton led through a second-half header from Beto, who also missed a first half penalty, but Kurt Zouma, Soucek and Álvarez struck in a stirring comeback by West Ham as the hosts’ winless Premier League run extended to 10 matches. Dyche’s team have not won in the league since visiting his former club Burnley on 16 December and are toiling at both ends of the pitch as they search for that elusive victory. Continue reading...

Late goals from Tomas Soucek and Edson Alvarez clinch West Ham a dramatic injury-time victory at Everton.

Tomas Soucek struck late on yet again as West Ham secured their passage into the knockout stages of the Europa League despite a Serbian snooze-fest against Backa Topola. The Czech midfielder has now scored in his last five matches for club and country after an 89th-minute volley earned a scratchy 1-0 win. Now they need to finish the job against Freiburg at the London Stadium in a fortnight to ensure they top the group and avoid a two-legged playoff in February. Continue reading...

When Vincent Kompany and Burnley won the Championship with 101 points and followed it with a summer of spending more than £90m on players, few in Lancashire could have anticipated the club having something in common with the 1970-71 Newport team of the fourth division but after seven straight home defeats to the start of the season they certainly do as they match the Welsh club’s record for the worst start to an English league season. Burnley’s appalling form at Turf Moor continued with defeat to West Ham despite leading until the 86th minute but a Dara O’Shea own goal and Tomas Soucek’s volley settled the match late on. Jay Rodriguez had scored from the spot to put the hosts ahead after Luca Koleosho was brought down in the box, some would argue for a second time, to give the fans hope of witnessing a first Turf Moor victory of the season. Continue reading...

The strange thing was that none of Sheffield United’s players even tried to get stuck into West Ham. Paul Heckingbottom’s side were insipid beyond belief on an afternoon devoid of any drama or intensity, their defensive foundations crumbling under the slightest pressure. It said little for their hopes of staying up that they were so easily swatted aside by opponents who spent most of the second half protecting their legs before visiting Freiburg in the Europa League on Thursday. West Ham were playing the game on their terms by that stage, goals from Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek inside the opening 37 minutes allowing them to save their energy for tougher assignments. If there were positives for Sheffield United, who remain bottom after earning one point from their opening seven games, it was only that they did not lose by more. Do not be fooled by hints of defiance when it was 2-0: West Ham finished the job during the first half, exposing naive defending with a few moments of class, and the absence of anything in the way of spirit or organisation when it was goalless will do little to end speculation over Heckingbottom’s future. Continue reading...