David Moyes praised Declan Rice for his latest Europa League heroics in the 2-0 win over Rapid Vienna.
Rice grabbed his second European goal in as many matches as West Ham won their first Europa League group-stage match played at home, and made it two wins from two.
Said Benrahma grabbed a second in stoppage time to wrap up another victory.
It was a fitting result the day after West Ham unveiled a statue of Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore and Martin Peters – three of their 1965 European Cup Winners’ Cup-winning side who went on to lift the World Cup for England a year later – outside London Stadium.
Having defeated Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 in their Group H opener in Croatia two weeks ago, Moyes’ side are already in a strong position a third of the way through the stage.
“The performance I wouldn’t put as high as some we’ve had this season, but we are still learning at this level," the Hammers' boss said. "We did the job and we were worthy winners.
“It took a really well-worked goal and a good goal by Declan. He has stepped up, he has the ability to get forward and score goals and we are encouraging him to do that. It’s good that he’s got two in this competition already.
“He’s beginning to show a little bit more, I think he’s more than capable, and he’s got a great shot in him too. But overall he’s a really good, developing midfield player.”
It was a match West Ham were expected to win comfortably with their opponents struggling badly in the Austrian league this season, and both Rice and Craig Dawson hit the frame of the goal before they went ahead after half an hour.
Michail Antonio chested the ball down from Andriy Yarmolenko’s pass and raided down the left before crossing low for Rice, who had started the move on the halfway line before racing forward to tap into an empty net.
It was the first home goal for a West Ham player in Europe, qualifiers aside, since Frank Lampard wrapped up a 3-0 UEFA Cup win over Croatian side Osijek in 1999.
Sadly the goal prompted some rival fans, who had been throwing plastic bottles and winding each other up non-stop, to try to get to each other, with police and stewards having to intervene.
That flare-up was quickly dealt with, although there was further trouble at the end, and even an altercation between supporter liaison staff from both clubs in the bowels of the stadium, with Rapid’s eventually being led off the premises.
“Look, we want to be a club playing regularly in Europe and we want to behave correctly," Moyes said.
“I don’t know who started it but we don’t want that reputation. We want to be seen as a club who can travel to Europe and everybody welcomes us. I was aware of some things being thrown.”
West Ham had a let-off in the second half when German referee Tobias Stieler gave a penalty after Rapid sub Marco Grull went down under a non-challenge from Ben Johnson, with VAR correctly overturning the decision.
And Benrahma made sure it was goodnight Vienna when he cut inside and curled in the second in stoppage time.
“You can never be happy after a loss but we played a good game, especially in the second half. Overall a decent performance,” Rapid coach Dietmar Kuhbauer said.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
LIVERPOOL SQUAD
Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Georginio Wijnaldum, James Milner, Naby Keita, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Joe Gomez, Adrian, Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana, Andy Lonergan, Xherdan Shaqiri, Andy Robertson, Divock Origi, Curtis Jones, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Neco Williams
