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West Ham United secured another victory in the Europa League but saw their celebrating received by empty seats as supporters endured a stadium ban for their disruption in the Europa Conference League final in June.
The record-breaking win saw the Hammers become the first English side to go 17 consecutive European games without defeat, and now with two wins from two in the group phase, David Moyes’ side are first and comfortably in reach of a place in the knockout phase already.
Lucas Paqueta opened the scoring after meeting Jarrod Bowen’s delightful cross, and while the Bundesliga side restored parity shortly after the break, Nayef Aguerd headed home a curling James Ward-Prowse corner to seal a third successive win across all competitions.
How did Lucas Paqueta perform vs Freiburg?
It will be most pleasing for Moyes that his side are juggling football across multiple fronts with confidence at present; West Ham suffered successive Premier League defeats last month but those came against Manchester City and Liverpool, since winning 2-0 against Sheffield United at the London Stadium.
And at the centre of all that flows is Paqueta, who was duly rewarded for another fine display with his role as the conduit in midfield, making a whopping five key passes to complement his opening strike.
Lucas Paqueta Game By Numbers (Sofascore) |
|
---|---|
Metric |
# |
Goals |
1 |
Assists |
0 |
Key Passes |
5 |
Touches |
77 |
Pass completion |
69% |
Duels won |
10/22 |
Tackles |
1 |
The Brazilian maestro has been sensational since signing from French side Lyon for a club-record £51m last summer, and has now posted seven goals and eight assists from 50 appearances.
While he only completed 69% of his passes at the Stade Europa-Park, this is more to do with Paqueta’s creativity and enterprising nature on the ball, searching for openings at every moment.
Indeed, another stellar showing, but it was his teammate and the orchestrator of his goal, Bowen, who was “brilliant again“, according to The Athletic’s Roshane Thomas.
How good was Jarrod Bowen vs Freiburg?
Bowen’s cross for Paqueta’s opener takes his seasonal tally up to five goals and two assists from eight outings, and he has rightfully been heralded for his “unbelievable” seasonal exploits by the likes of talkSPORT’s Simon Jordan.
In Germany, as per Sofascore, he served as the centre-forward and complimented his goal with a key pass, 41 touches and success with four of his five dribble attempts, also winning six duels and taking four shots.
Having received an England call-up earlier in the day, the dynamic forward proved his worth once again as one of the most threatening and multi-faceted of his position.
With metrics also ranking the £60k-per-week star among the top 7% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for interceptions, the top 9% for aerial wins and the top 19% for clearances per 90, as per FBref, he is certainly integral across the different phases of the Irons’ play.
With further displays such as the one against Freiburg, this flourishing gem will only continue to grow, and he is very much the centrepiece of West Ham’s attack and demonstrated his stunning skills once again last night.