Semifinal is “evenly balanced” -Moyes

West Ham came back in dramatic fashion to beat Az Alkmaar 2-1 in the first leg of the UEFA Conference semifinals with goals from Said Benrahma and Michail Antonio. A lead is a lead, but one goal isn’t enough to feel too confident heading into the next leg.

Moyes says it’s a “tight balance”

At halftime, West Ham was down 1-0 after a strike from Tijjani Reijnders in the 41st minute. But the two goals in the second half for West Ham happened within eight minutes of each other to take the victory. It would be West Ham’s fourth victory after conceding the opening goal in the Europa Conference League this season.

West Ham boss David Moyes said he was quite pleased with how his side managed the comeback, but not so much about their first-half performance.

“Poor decision-making, that’s what it was,” said Moyes. “I thought our decision-making in the first half was not good.”

“We were the team that were probing and trying to score more than they were,” he continued. “We came out on top tonight so we need to make sure we can do that in the next leg.”

The second leg between West Ham and Az Alkmaar will be played in the Netherlands on Thursday, May 18 at the AFAS Stadium. Moyes knows that one goal is not enough to feel like they’ve already won.

“I think the tie is very evenly balanced,” said Moyes. “If it was the other way around and we were losing by a goal, I wouldn’t be in here saying we were out of the tie. And I wouldn’t think AZ would be saying that either. I think the game is very tightly balanced.”