Antonio -32 years old

West Ham striker Michail Antonio has declared that  AZ Alkmaar gave the Hammers a really tough test as they came from behind to beat AZ Alkmaar 2-1 last night at the London Stadium. 

Going into half time 1 -0 down, memories of last year’s game with Eintracht Frankfurt were appearing again, but the Irons came out with all guns blazing in the second half and equalised from the penalty spot on 67 minutes, courtesy of Said Benrahma.

And we knew it was going to be our night when Antonio poked home from close range following an attempted clearance off the line from an Alkmaar player.

Yes it was a scrappy goal but they all count. After the match, the striker admitted to BT Sport how tough a game it was against the Dutch side.

He said: “It definitely was a tough game, from watching what they’ve done we knew they would play football and they’re a decent team. We made it difficult for ourselves, we had chances, we just needed to be more clinical, but in the end we got the result.

“We know they’re a possession-based team , they know how to work it. We were like ‘alright, we’ll let you have it, and on the counter, we’ll damage you‘.”

He then spoke about his wait for a goal and that now he’s found his scoring touch again, he can start to think about the second leg.

Antonio bundled home from inside the six-yard box to give West Ham the lead in the second half.

“I was hoping the ball fell to me more tonight but it dropped on me perfectly for my goal. I got the goal, we got the win and we move on to next week.”