Genk Vs West Ham: The Hammers' Winning Trend Has Stopped

Genk Vs West Ham (Twitter @westham)

JAKARTA - The trend of sweeping West Ham United's victory in Group H of the Europa League was stopped by Genk. The two teams drew 2-2 at the Cegeka Arena Stadium, Belgium, Thursday local time.

The result also delays the certainty of West Ham qualifying for the last 16 of the Europa League, because they so far have only ten points at the top of Group H.

Launching Antara, Genk is in third place with four points, after Dinamo Zagreb defeated Rapid Vienna 3-1 in the late game.

We remain undefeated in Europe #GNKWHU #UEL pic.twitter.com/LTA46Jg0MP

— West Ham United (@WestHam) November 4, 2021

The game marked West Ham's 100th appearance under David Moyes in all competitions, but four minutes into the game the Hammers had already conceded an early goal by Joseph Paintsil.

Starting from the action of Junya Ito sending a pass that split the West Ham defense, Paintsil was able to catch the ball before outwit Issa Diop and fired a shot that goalkeeper Alphonse Areola did not anticipate.

West Ham came close to equalizing right at the end of the first half when Michail Antonio fired home goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt but Patrik Hrosovsky cleared the ball just before it crossed the line.

West Ham's hard work paid back in the 59th minute when Vladimir Coufal sent Aaron Cresswell's cross into the face of goal where Said Benrahma only had to cheat to make it 1-1.

Benrahma then scored again in the 82nd minute to give West Ham a 2-1 lead after he cleared Mujaid Sadick before firing a powerful shot into the net.

Unfortunately, five minutes later West Ham's lead disappeared in a tragic way as Tomas Soucek scored an own goal while trying to clear Angelo Preciado's cross and instead headed the ball into his own net.

West Ham came close to a dramatic win through but Coufal's cross was just out of reach for Jarrod Bowen, while Pablo Fornals' shot went straight into Vandevoordt's arms, forcing the 2-2 score to last until the break.