West Ham trained Europa League experts Sevilla and David Moyes wants such a night to be the norm

It was the most beautiful hour of London Stadium since Jessica Ennis-Hill, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah all won Olympic gold in 2012.

Bubbles hovered in the night sky, Mark Noble jumped on the back of Declan Rice, and a roaring Andriy Yarmolenko zoned on a Ukrainian flag in the crowd and threw his shirt at him. The noise attacked the senses.

Wealth has often been hidden from West Ham since they moved into this arena; it was an unpopular replacement for Upton Park and at times the atmosphere was fractious rather than harmonious.

But not last night. Perhaps for the first time, with 59,000 Hammers fans trapped, we finally saw the full potential of this cavernous place as a stadium for football.

West Ham have struggled to make their mark in European competitions lately – no one mentions Astra Giurgiu – but the way David Moyes’ team beat Europa League experts Sevilla on Thursday night has all changed.

After beating the European experts, West Ham will have absolutely no fear in Friday’s quarter-finals. Barcelona, ​​Atalanta, Leipzig, Lyon? Bring them up.

“I heard we were really massive,” Moyes said in his post-match interview, referring to the fan’s favorite side.

It did not look like they were trying to break down non-league Kidderminster Harriers in the FA Cup last month.

But this overtime win has provided a fresh impetus for a season that looks set to fall into place.

Absolute credit must go to Moyes on occasions like these. Football managers are expected to deal with tactics and training.

What they never predict is that Yarmolenko will have to continue playing football while his homeland is blown over Ukraine by Russian bombs.

Or that they were dealing with defender Kurt Zouma, who was trampling his cat, a moment of indescribable stupidity that led to him being persecuted by the RSPCA.

Moyes, like all the others, had found the incident absolutely aborted. And yet, practically speaking, he needs closure because he does not have enough defenders.

So when West Ham fans praise Scot’s man management and ability to keep things on track and such extraordinary distractions, they’re in place.

If Arthur Masuaku’s cross somehow finds its way past Edouard Mendy to secure a 3-2 victory over Chelsea on December 4, there seems to be no limit to what West Ham could achieve this season.

It established a four-point cushion between the Hammers on the fourth and Arsenal on the fifth – it looked very likely that the bright lights of London Stadium would host Champions League football next season.

But their Premier League form became fluid, so that first Manchester United and then Arsenal took them into the top four.

Out of the two national cups, the West Ham season seems to be going nowhere. But beating Sevilla delivered a real shot in the arm – they can now reach the Champions League anyway, even with a trophy in the cabinet.

If the results have not gone their way in recent weeks, annoyed supporters have pointed to a lack of investment in a relatively small squad during the January window.

Moyes was certainly frustrated that the club did not bring anyone, but the clothing spirit he has fostered since he returned to the club in December 2019 has ensured that they all have just soldiers.

Scotland may be Old School, but sometimes that’s exactly what a club needs. West Ham relegated him at the end of the 2017-18 season and are looking for more glamor in the form of Manuel Pellegrini.

It took 19 months to realize the error of their ways. Pellegrini left the club 17th in the Premier League table, one point above the relegation zone.

When Moyes walked into the club again and said “I think there are only two or three managers with a better Premier League winning record”, he was much mocked.

But never underestimate anyone who has a point to prove and Moyes has had to do quite a bit since he did not expose himself to Manchester United’s ‘Chosen One’ in 2014.

He managed to build West Ham into a team that got the basics right. It is not a fancy football – low block, balls and channels, counter-attacks, threat of set pieces. But it usually works.

The owners, who did not return him in January, with the promise of an exceptional season very real, still look like a mistake. But at least in Europe they continue to march.

More impressively, Moyes created a winning culture in a club that had forgotten how to win. He does not want his players to consider a Thursday night, as exceptional a result as it was, as a big deal. This should be the norm.

There is no reward for excluding Sevilla. He then said to his players in the wardrobe: ‘Worked well, but we did not get any medals for the evening. Tomorrow again for training. ‘

Moyes is not a disciplinarian. For example, you will not find cell phones banned at the training ground, but players know that they will receive Alex Ferguson-style hot dryer treatment if they get out of line too often.

Stuart Pearce, one of the first team coaches, helps turn teeth. He watched the Sevilla game from the press box to get a broader overview of the pitch, passing on his observations to colleagues on the bench.

As you can imagine, ‘Psycho’ does not refrain from telling the player how it is. But he described the squad as “the most sympathetic group of men I have ever worked with.”

Which brings us to the superhuman individual efforts that have raised West Ham from the ordinary to the extraordinary this season.

Rice was exceptional on both legs of the Sevilla tie. The English midfielder rarely had a bad game and his colors and determination helped the team through a Test extension last night.

But the threadable nature of the squad – the injured Jarrod Bowen was a big miss – means Moyes had little chance of throwing Michail Antonio and Aaron Cresswell if they were not fully fit.

In fact, the two had been training from the main group on Wednesday and were not expected. But both were willing to play through the pain barrier and both were very good, selfless in a 120-minute shift.

Then there is Yarmolenko, who is riding on a wave of all kinds of human emotions due to the tragic events in his homeland.

But despite running the emotional steam, he has now scored vital goals against Aston Villa and now Sevilla in five days. How fitting that it was his goal that sent West Ham through.

Zouma’s bad behavior also threatened to derail things for West Ham. But Noble used his experience to call a team meeting, Zouma was forced to sit down and listen to his teammates, and the matter was closed.

Zouma is condemned in every away group – and rightly so – but West Ham still need him to play and play – and he is.

The big unknown is how long the process of accusing the RSPCA of Zouma and his brother Yoan will take and how big a distraction it will prove.

But the last word should go to Noble. The club captain, who quickly came to the end of his time with the club, was good as he celebrated on the final flood after coming to a head in the final minutes.

The baton from the midfield lead was passed on to Rice and the couple greeted the fans together as the sweet Caroline was turned off.

Could 34-year-old Mark Noble, from Canning Town, have a fairytale finish by winning the Europa League Trophy in May? He might know you.