Very nice to be able to watch this on BT Sport at 5.45pm at home with a beer. The first thing you noticed was that Zagreb's blue carpet was even more massive than ours — their stadium makes the London Stadium seem compact!
It turned out to be a thoroughly professional performance against a club which defeated a minor London side (Spurs) 3-0 last season. The Irons attacked from the start, forcing a series of corners. It took a helpful back pass from the admirably-named Theophile-Catherine to take the lead though. Credit to Lanzini for closing his man down and torAntonio for being alert enough to nick the ball round the keeper and into an empty net, sparking joy among the 2000 travelling fans.
It should have been two after a great ball from Antonio sent the speedy Fredericks away, only for Ryan to fire his effort into the keeper. Vlasic looked a little diffident but did have a good effort blocked and then sent a shot just wide. A deflected shot wide was the only Zagreb effort to trouble Fabianski.
The second half saw the home side play with greater intensity, until Declan Rice killed the game after 50 minutes. It was a great goal, Declan anticipating a pass and powering from the half-way line to shoot through the keeper's legs.
Moyes sensibly decided to sub the booked Lanzini after another risky foul. For the rest of the match the Hammers out-passed the home side and finished comfortably. Clearly Dinsmo Zagreb are no FC Astra. Zouma and Diop had steady games at the back, Fredericks and Lanzini got some match time and we even had the luxury of bringing on the returning Arthur Masuaku, plus Noble and Yarmolenko.
As this was considered to be the Hammers most difficult game, a very encouraging start to our European campaign.
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