For Jarrod Bowen, winning a European semi-final at the second attempt was a moment to enjoy with West Ham United teammates he has come to know and love over the past three-and-a-half years.
The winger, who has played more than 150 times in Claret and Blue since joining in January 2020, was part of the side disappointingly defeated by Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-finals of last season’s UEFA Europa League.
Bowen, along with seven of the other starters in the Netherlands on Thursday evening, were granted redemption when the Hammers defeated AZ Alkmaar 1-0 to complete a 3-1 aggregate victory and reach the UEFA Europa Conference League final.
“You’ve got to enjoy these moments,” the England winger confirmed. “It’s not very often you get to a final. With last year, I was disappointed to lose in the semi-finals, and of course we’ve still got to go and win the final, but in terms of getting to a final, you have to enjoy these moments with a group of players who are friends as well. We want to enjoy this moment.”
West Ham to work hard to progress to a Prague showdown with Fiorentina on 7 June, really hard, with AZ controlling possession for long periods, but David Moyes’ side defended with determination to keep their Dutch opponents at bay.
Then, in added-time, Pablo Fornals settled the tie once and for all with a superb individual goal, which Bowen and his teammates celebrated wildly with the travelling Claret and Blue Army.
“We knew it was going to be difficult,” the No20 observed. “We knew we had only a one-goal lead and how strong AZ are at home. We felt that and we suffered as they did really well with the ball and are a really top team, with the ball, so we knew we’d have to defend a lot and we did that really well to a man and at the end we got the goal to win the game.
“Defensively, I thought we were really good. We could have done more with the ball going forward, but we’re in the final so it’s no time to talk about those sorts of things.
“We knew the first 15 minutes of both halves, they were going to be electric and it was just about us dealing with it. Like I said, we could have done more to stop that, and we had to defend really well and I thought we did.
“It’s not easy coming away from home in a European semi-final. We had a lead which was so precious and we wanted to hold onto our lead and we did that, so thankfully we’re in the final now.”
The support of 1,000-odd fans in a fervent AZ Stadium, and across West Ham’s Conference League run, undoubtedly helped the Hammers reach Prague, and Bowen is determined to reward their passion and loyalty by lifting the Conference League Trophy next month.
“These moments are to be enjoyed with teammates, friends, family and the fans,” he confirmed. “It hasn’t been the best season, we’re not going to hide away from that, but getting into a final and staying in the Premier League were our main aims for this season.
“We’ve got two more Premier League games where we want to finish strongly and a massive final and we want to lift some silverware for our fantastic fans. We want to do it for us, and for the fans as well.”
