KAA Gent Match Preview

West Ham United head back to Belgium as they continue on their UEFA Europa Conference League journey tonight when they play the first-leg of the quarter-final tie against KAA Gent at Ghelamco Arena.

Since August 2022, the Hammers have one all ten ties to date in this competition and they will hope to carry on that record here.

David Moyes’ side go into this game having claimed two Premier League victories in the last week which included an away win at newly-promoted Fulham five days ago and they will be hoping to build on the weekend’s result by taking an advantage into next week’s second-leg.

The East Londoners progressed to this stage by beating Cypriot side AEK Larnaca in their Round of 16 match.

The Irons’ boss may decide to stick with the starting line-up from Saturday’s game at Craven Cottage, or make changes with Emmerson Palmieri, Nayef Aguerd, Thilo Kehrer and Saïd Benrahma all ready and hoping to start, while Lucas Paquetá has recovered from a foot injury and may also regain his place. Pablo Fornals is hoping to feature in midfield for the second time in five days, Alphonse Areola is likely may well to start ahead of Łukasz Fabiański in goal.

Vladimír Coufal returned from injury against Marco Silva’s side and could start again in defence, while Manuel Lanzini has played every game in this competition to date and may well be set to start again. Maxwel Cornet will also hope to be involved.

Freddie Potts, Divin Mubama and Levi Laing will once again be in contention for the matchday squad, while Keenan Appiah-Forson, Regan Clayton, Kamarai Swyer and Kaelan Casey may also be included.

Tonight’s match is a 5:45pm kick-off with live coverage being screened by BT Sport from 5pm. The referee is Anastasios Sidiropoulos