Ally McCoist says West Ham have a truly ‘terrific’ talent in their ranks

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West Ham United cruised into the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday night after hammering Freiburg 5-0 at the London Stadium.

David Moyes‘ charges trailed 1-0 from the first leg, but didn’t need long to cancel out the visitors’ lead before taking control of the tie.

West Ham star Lucas Paqueta got the ball rolling for the east Londoners with a ninth-minute opener that made it 1-1 on aggregate.

The Hammers applied early pressure with three consecutive corners and it was a case of third time lucky as the Brazilian slid home from point-blank range.

Ally McCoist was commentating on Rangers’ encounter with Benfica on TNT Sports when he was told of Paqueta’s opener.

“He’s some player for West Ham,” McCoist said (14/3/24, 6pm). “They’re a different side when he’s in it. Terrific.”

Lucas Paqueta suffers injury scare as West Ham cruise into Europa League quarter-finals

Paqueta did well following his opener, getting plenty of nice touches, but he suffered a knock in the first half and was taken off on the hour.

Moyes revealed post-match that the original plan was to replace him at half-time, only to be convinced otherwise.

“He was injured in the first half, and he was unhappy at half-time as I was going take him off then,” Moyes told TNT Sports, via the Evening Standard.

“But I said ‘no, I’ll keep you going’ [for the second half], but then you start thinking about other games at the weekend and how we could protect him as best we could.”

Paqueta appeared frustrated when he came off, but it’s certainly best to be safe than sorry, particularly considering West Ham were cruising to victory.

Aaron Cresswell had made it 3-0 early on in the second half before Mohammed Kudus netted a late brace, the first of which was a Diego Maradona-esque solo wondergoal.