Sevilla and West Ham meet this Thursday in the first leg of the Europa League round of 32, just over a year after the Hammers tried to take Youssef En-Nesyri from Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. The London club pressed with an offer of around 35 million euros that neither Nervión nor the player himself wanted to accept. By then, the Moroccan striker had scored a good part of the 24 official goals between the League and the Champions League with which the campaign ended.
David Moyes’ team is now completing another great season in which he is fighting for European positions in the Premier again and has advanced to the round, as first, in the second continental round. And the Anglo-Jamaican Michael Antonio shines in his attack, who this year has 10 goals and 9 assists. En-Nesyri suffers from a prolonged and annoying muscle injury that he had him almost without playing for three months and from which he has not fully recovered, at least in the scoring aspect, since he returned from playing the Africa Cup with Morocco.
West Ham will now have the opportunity, back and forth, to spy on the Fez striker on the spot. To really know what was lost. It is possible that facing the team that wanted him will spur Youssef, whose last goal was in the African tournament and he has not scored with Sevilla since September 25, when he made it 1-0 to Espanyol. He was somewhat more in tune against Betis and caused the penalty that would open the scoring, but against Alavés he was a substitute and was not successful either during his 20 minutes of play.
Lopetegui and Monchi hope that the end of the season help En-Nesyri regain scoring confidence and the form of last campaign. That would help to achieve the objectives and, incidentally, to revalue the footballer with suitors for next summer. Who knows, especially if he completes a good round of 16 tie, if West Ham themselves pay attention to him again.
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