West Ham United manager David Moyes took a dig at Bayer Leverkusen players when both teams met at BayArena, in the quarter-final of the Europa League. The Hammers would be without two Brazilian players Emerson Palmieri and Lucas Paqueta in the second leg next week, following three yellow cards they have collected throughout the competition so far.
Moyes accused Leverkusen players of interfering with the referee’s decision regarding the two players. Initially, Paqueta was challenged Amine Adli which attracted the attention of Artur Dias, the Portuguese referee. Later on, several Leverkusen players circled around Dias which according to Moyes was an intervention.
David Moyes disappointed with Bayer Leverkusen’s players approach
“He will be a huge miss but I thought their bench was a disgrace,” Moyes said after the game via Goal. “He got surrounded. I thought it was disgraceful and was really disappointing. You should let the referee make the decision and not the way they reacted to the incident.
“I thought it was a rule all the way through. We would not all run off and surround him. It was a poor thing for them to do and they are a good side and they didn’t need to react like that.”
Despite losing the first leg, Moyes is confident that the door is not closed yet for West Ham. The Scottish gaffer is preparing his players to score first and take gain momentum when in the second leg at London Stadium next week.
“We will have to come up trumps next week and the first thing we have to do is get one goal and take it from there. We know we are playing a good team but we are not out of the tie. If we can get that first goal it will make a difference.”
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Responding to Moyes’ verdict on the referee’s decision, Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso refused to put himself in a bad-blood situation with the former Manchester United gaffer. The Spaniard has his own opinion regarding the yellow card fiasco and opted not to talk about West Ham’s players as Moyes did to his.