Hammers Win Tigers Battle
West Ham United are through to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup after a comprehensive 5-1 victory over Sky Bet League One side Hull City in Stratford on Tuesday night.
Issa Diop and Josh Cullen would have started the match but were replaced by youngster Harrison Ashby and Jack Wilshire. This was due to a positive Coronavirus test for the pair. Alan Irvine took charge of the match, as David Moyes also tested positive. Ajibola Alese also started and Emmanuel Longelo was on the bench.
Felipe Anderson, who got the third goal against Charlton Athletic in the last round, went close twice in the opening stages but neither effort was able to beat visiting goalkeeper George Long.
Long was the busier goalkeeper and was forced into action just minutes later as Ashby tried his luck but he made a great save.
Grant McCann was forced into a change on seventeen minutes as his Captain Richard Smallwood was replaced by George Honeyman. Just seconds after, his side found themselves a goal behind when Manuel Lanzini and Andriy Yarmolenko combined to set up former Tiger Robert Snodgrass for a goal against his old club.
West Ham were still well on top with Lanzini going close, before Sébastien Haller increased the advantage just short of half-time. It was the same combination of Lanzini and Yarmolenko that set up the chance.
The Hammers maintained their dominance after the break with Haller having the chance to double his tally but this time he sent his curling shot wide.
Yarmolenko had a goal disallowed against the Addicks in round two but his effort here counted. The hosts were awarded a penalty on fifty six minutes when Haller went down in the box. The Ukrainian confidently stepped up and sent Long the wrong way.
The home side suffered a blow just after the hour when Ashby had to be taken off on a stretcher. The game was held up for a considerable amount of time before the youngster was eventually substituted by Longelo.
The Hammers had further chances to cement their place in the next round but failed to take them; it was Hull who found a way back into the match when Mallik Wilks capitalised on a defensive mistake from the substitute and slotted the ball past Darren Randolph.
Any chance of a Hull comeback was ended when West Ham made the scoreline look more representative of their superiority, when they added two more goals in added time. First, Lanzini found Haller who took it past Long and the victory was wrapped up when Anderson played in Yarmolenko to make it five.
The Hammers can now focus on their next Premier League encounter back in Stratford against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.