A strange night indeed at the London Stadium as news comes through at 6.30pm that the Queen has died. The game goes on and there's a minute's silence at the start plus a spontaneous chorus of God Save the Queen. At half-time a picture of the Queen handing Bobby Moore the World Cup trophy goes up on the big screens. It's down to diehards Fraser, Nigel and myself, as Matt and Lisa are called away to royal reporting duties.
The first-half sees lots of bouncing away fans as West Ham create chances, but Scamacca looks still not sharp after his virus and misses West Ham's best chance when set clear by Downes.The Brentwood-born youngster has a decent game and Emerson looks lively at left-back. But SCSB are dangerous on the break. After failing to score with a free header they then score with a sweeping move in the 34th minute as Cordea fires home.
In a break with precedent we stay in our seats at half-time and it seems to work, aided by Nigel's lucky banana. Moyes brings on Antonio, Bowen and Paqueta for the second half and the Irons immediately look better as Antonio troubles the injury-feigning Romanians with his pace. Bowen nets the decisive penalty after Cornet is clattered by the keeper. Paqueta starts to play some incisive trough balls and the second arrives as the progressive Emerson strokes home after Antonio forces a save. The third comes after a great turn and shot from Antonio who has his best game in ages. Fornals and Antonio could have added more goals in the end.
A strange evening ends and we're sure the Queen would have been happy to see her beloved West Ham finally beat a Romanian side. And then a trip to Hackney Wick in the rain where Nigel meets the match day announcer on the Overground and they bond over trivia, as Nigel asks who was the West Ham legend who made his debut in the other 3-2 win over Man United? The answer is of course Bobby Moore. It looks like Sunday's game could be postponed, but after a difficult first half this was an encouraging performance in Europe.
PLAYER RATINGS: Areola 6: Coufal 6, Ogbonna 6 (Dawson n/a), Kehrer 6, Emerson 7; Rice 7, Downes 7, Benrahma 5 (Bowen 7), Lanzini 5 (Paqueta 7); Scamacca 5 (Antonio 8), Cornet 7 (Fornals 6).
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