West Ham and Eintracht Frankfurt set up a perfect Europa League semi-final - The Warm-Up

FRIDAY'S BIG STORIES Liquid Europa Ad/> Looking forward to that glamorous Barcelona-Lyon semi-final, were you? You fool! This is the Europa League, and it cares not for your preconceptions, your assumptions, your desires to see Dembélé and Dembélé face-off Highlander style. Not when David Moyes is about at any rate. TransfersPogba in line for shock Premier League switch — Paper Round24/03/2022 AT 10:55 West Ham looked a bit naive in the first leg.

Squandering their home advantage, misreading the referee: these are the mistakes that English sides used to make in Europe, before the Champions League made group stage machines out of the biggest and best. But when it comes to England-in-Europe, West Ham are outsiders, newbies, wide-eyed innocents. For a start, it looks like they are trying to win the Europa League not as a secret path into the Champions League, but because they really want to win the thing.

How cute! And they're learning quickly. Their performance in last night's second leg was taut and professional. A lot of committed defending and a little bit of luck.

Ride out the early siege, wait for the chances to come, and take them: one, two, three. They don't give out awards for well-worked set pieces, but in its own way, Pablo Fornals to Craig Dawson was just as unstoppable as any 30-yard piledriver. /> The other two goals — 43' and 47' — served to prove the old cliché about the five minutes either side of half-time being a good time to score.

Send Lyon into the break thinking «Hang on, we're in trouble here»; welcome them back by completely ruining the half-time pep talk. Make the home fans worry, then shut them up completely. In a just world, the Europa League would begin with some kind of footballing