With as little as eight minutes to go, West Ham United supporters could have been forgiven for anticipating that Sunday afternoon’s game would ultimately end in defeat.
But the West Ham United supporters never stop believing, and neither do the players or management, according to midfielder Tomáš Souček.
The Czech Republic international saw his team trail 3-0 at Tottenham Hotspur in the closing stages, despite a promising performance on the whole.
They eventually received their just rewards, mounting the Premier League’s latest-ever comeback from a three goal deficit to earn the most extraordinary of points in North London – and Souček could scarcely hide his delight.
“We are very happy,” he beamed. “Sometimes it’s very boring when a team is losing 3-0 in the last ten minutes, but we had talked together at half-time and said we wanted to win the second half of the game.
“It was very hard because all week we had prepared well. We had seen many videos and tactics of them, but it is very hard for everybody when you’re losing 3-0 after 20 minutes.
“It was incredible because we played well I think. The whole game we kept the ball and created many chances, and we deserved a point – maybe three points – but still, after 80 minutes, we were losing 3-0.
“When we scored after 83 minutes, we all believed that we still had a chance. We attacked the whole game and we deserved our point.
“Then we scored three goals and it was an incredible performance for us, because the last ten minutes were beautiful and everyone could see us celebrate in the corner because Lanzini’s shot was beautiful.
“It was a massive, massive point or us, and it was great for us looking to the future. We want to go up in the table and to have a better season.”
‘Beautiful’ and ‘incredible’ are words befitting a goal of the majesty of Lanzini’s equaliser, which arrived in the fifth minute of injury time.
Every day in training he’s shooting very well. When he had prepared the ball, I believed that he would score – and we could see what a celebration it was
Manuel Lanzini
The Argentine’s first-time, arcing shot from 25 yards had an xG (‘expected goal’) value of just 0.01, according to analytics website Understat.
More literally, a one-in-a-hundred strike.
“For me it was incredible as well,” Souček said. “I believed in him because I know how he can score, how he can strike the ball, attack the goal.
“Every day in training he’s shooting very well. When he had prepared the ball, I believed that he would score – and we could see what a celebration it was.
“When the ball was flying high into the net, I celebrated and all the bench celebrated. All the team celebrated and everyone ran to the corner. It was a draw and I think we deserved a point – maybe more!”
