West Ham Lost To Eintracht Frankfurt In Europa League Semifinals, Declan Rice: I'm Still Proud

Instagram.com/@declanrice (West Ham captain Declan Rice shows the team pride in their performances on the pitch)

JAKARTA - The 2021/2022 Europa League competition has entered the semifinals, on Friday, 6 May WIB, West Ham United's turn to face Eintracht Frankfurt.

A visit to Deutsche Bank Park in Germany, West Ham in fact failed to win a ticket to the final from the host.

In the second leg match, the Hammers lost 0-1 to Frankfurt who scored the only goal through Rafael Borre's kick. The narrow score then made the English representatives fail to advance to the next stage, because overall they lost 1-3 on aggregate.

Even though his team failed to win a ticket to the Europa League final, Declan Rice as West Ham captain still expressed his pride in the struggles that his teammates had put in during the match.

Moreover, in this second leg the Hammers were forced to play with 10 players since the 19th minute because their left back, Aaron Cresswell was sent off by the referee.

The situation immediately made the coach, David Moyes make changes. He pulled in attacking midfielder Manuel Lanzini, about three minutes later and then, instead, he brought on full-back Ben Johnson.

After that, West Ham tried to give everything. They got a lot of chances, especially in the second half. But the final result has not been in favor of the London team.

"Maybe they (Eintracht Frankfurt) played in a similar way to us, and that surprised us a little bit," Rice said of this match, quoted from uefa.com.

"But nobody expected West Ham to be at this stage (semi-finals), but I'm very proud of everyone. The team played well, even though we lost," said Rice.

The 23-year-old captain continued that he did not expect the Hammers to make it to the semifinals in the Europa League competition and pass a number of other big clubs. This achievement for Rice is still not satisfactory, but in the future he and his colleagues are determined to achieve better results because the team has put in the maximum effort.

"Nobody thought we could get past Sevilla or Lyon. It (lost in the semi-finals) is not a good result, but we will come back. The players want more, and this club deserves more," said Rice.

After their steps were stopped in the semifinals of the Europa League, now is the time for The Hammers to shift their focus to the domestic realm. Because after this, West Ham will face host Norwich City in the 2021/2022 Premier League.

The duel will take place at Carrow Road, on Sunday, May 8 in the morning WIB. Ahead of the meeting, the Hammers are in seventh place in the standings, which means that Rice and co's chances to appear in European competition next season are still wide open.