Ahead of the first leg of West Ham United's UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-final first-leg tie at KAA Genk in Belgium, Vladimír Coufal has the Last Word...
Of course, everyone knows it was a very important win for us at Fulham on Saturday. We were close to the relegation zone but now we are breathing a bit easier. But still the situation is not where we want to be, so we need to add some other wins and keep going until the end of the season.
Firstly, we need to stay in the Premier League for sure, that’s absolutely clear. The second main goal for us is to lift a trophy and if we can stay in the Premier League and win the Conference League it would be an unbelievable season for everyone, so those are our two goals.
It’s one of the main goals of our season, to lift a trophy. A trophy means something special. You can finish sixth or seventh in the Premier League and it is a big success for West Ham, but to lift a trophy is something else, something extra. The feeling and prestige for fans and for players is unbelievable and it doesn’t matter which competition you win.
I was asked if this game with Gent is our toughest in Europe this season and I thought about it. I would say the very dramatic game was at Silkeborg because we played on the artificial grass and this team was really good with their combinations and they were used to playing on the artificial grass.
For us it was something new and we were a bit surprised. We were losing but we managed to win this game so that was the most important thing. Maybe this game and at Silkeborg, then.
When you lose a game like we lost last season’s Europa League semi-final against Eintracht Frankfurt, it’s still in my head to be honest. It’s the same as when we lost at Euro 2020 with the Czech Republic. We were so close to the semi-finals and a medal and like with West Ham really close to the final.
I could be sitting here as a winner of the Europa League now and I’m sitting here as a semi-finalist, so it’s a big difference. Like I said, winning a trophy is something extra and every player wants to experience this, lifting a trophy, so it’s still in my head but me and also my teammates are doing everything this season to repair this semi-final from last year and to be in the Europa Conference League final and lift a trophy.
It is a huge motivation for me and Tomáš Souček obviously to bring all the staff and team to Prague for the Conference League final, show them the beautiful stadium of Slavia Prague and some beautiful places in Prague. For me, it’s a huge motivation.
From my country, when Tomáš and I signed for West Ham, my feeling is like everyone became a fan of West Ham and I think we created a big community of West Ham fans in the Czech Republic.
When I saw the first time that the final was going to be in Prague, I said to the guys: ‘We have to reach this final’. To lift a trophy in front of my friends and family in my country would be something extra for me.
