Emerson is hoping to add to his set of European winner’s medals after helping West Ham United reach the knockout stages of the UEFA Europa Conference League.
The Italian wing-back, who has previously won the Champions League, Europa League, Super Cup and European Championship, has started all four of the Hammers’ Group B victories, adding an assist in Thursday’s 2-1 home win over RSC Anderlecht to the goal he scored in the 3-1 success against FCSB on Matchday One.
The 28-year-old caught the eye again with his relentless running up and down the left wing and while there is still a long way to go until the final in Prague next June, and he knows the Irons will need to manage games better than they did late on against the Belgians at London Stadium, he knows his squad possesses the quality to go all the way.
“I think we did our job,” he smiled. “The objective for us was to qualify and we did this so we are proud of what we did in the group because we played four games and we won all four, but we need to improve and play better. In the second half, we didn’t do very well, so now it’s time to think it over and get ready for Sunday.
“We did very well, but in the end we started to lose too many balls in the midfield and up front and we need to learn to control the game more because, although we did well, we don’t need to suffer and we suffered in the end when they scored one goal and the last six or seven minutes were hard, but we did well and we won.
“Why can’t we go all the way? I won some things in Europe – the Champions League, the Europa League, the European Championship with the national team – so I just miss the Conference League! We can do this, but we need to work hard to arrive there step by step.”
Emerson is well known for his attacking prowess and in addition to a number of goal attempts, he provided the cross for Jarrod Bowen to smash in West Ham’s second goal on the half-hour mark.
And he is loving being part of a West Ham squad with so much talent in attacking positions.
“I am happy for the assist and to help the team, which is what I am here for,” he continued. “I am happy for Bowen that he scored and I think it’s great work from the team and we did really well.
“We have so much quality. When we start to play simple with our objective to the goal, we can score against every team because we have so many players up front who can do like Saïd and Bowen did tonight – Scamacca, Paquetá, Antonio, Fornals. We have a lot of players with quality and I like to play with them.”
The No33 has been a regular in Europe and is hoping his form there will lead to more opportunities in the Premier League, starting at Southampton on Sunday afternoon.
“I am tired tonight, but we love to play football and we love as well when we have so many matches and two games every week, so now it’s time to recover and we go again on Sunday,” he observed.
“We won four games in a row, so we need to keep in this way. On Sunday we have another hard game when we go to Southampton, who we respect, but we need to go there with the mentality to win the game.”
