West Ham 1 Lille 1 (West Ham won on pens 5-4) (Boyle Sports Cup)
Well, at least we've reached a cup final. Watching the Boyle Sports Cup on the WHU feed reveals a few pointers on how Potter might approach the season. As on the US tour he's gone for three centre backs and it's good to see Nayef Aguerd back at the club. Generally the defence looks a lot more solid without the Greek Bloke, though with good coaching perhaps Potter can help eliminate the mistakes in Dinos's game.
The downside is that Lille look the better side in the first half and the midfield is outnumbered. Freddie Potts is neat and defends well but doesn't look as yet what we need in the Premier League, while Ward-Prowse goes close with one shot and takes a lot of free kicks but is not really the answer either. Paqueta picks up a silly booking and never gets going as West Ham show a reluctance to play the ball forwards.
Bowen fires against the keeper's legs but West Ham prove they are still adept at conceding before the break. Wan-Bissaka plays Olivier Giroud onside and the former Arsenal man chests it down to volley home a fine goal.
Things improve a bit in the second half as Diouf and Wan-Bissaka get forward more and the side shows more aggression. Todibo and Kilman make things happen a couple of times stepping up from the back most notably when Kilman's run sets up Bowen to pull the ball wide.
It's a decent test against a side that finished fifth in the French league. Aguerd heads over from a corner. Fullkrug has a header tipped away by Bodart and a training ground free-kick routine sees him fire over. Bringing on Walker-Peters, Rodriguez and Soucek makes a difference.
With three minutes left the big German is not to be denied. Some diligent pressing of the keeper sees Walker-Peters and Bowen win the ball back and feed Soucek, who pulls back for Niclas to score. The cup dream remains on.
In the shoot-out Fullkrug hits the first penalty too tamely, having also had one saved in the Betway Cup last season, prompting Matt to quip that we have signed the only German striker not to be able to take a penalty. Everyone else scores though and it's left to Alphonse Areola, looking increasing like one of the Three Musketeers with his new Barnet and 'tache, to make a couple of smart penalty saves. That will do his confidence some good in the battle for the no 1 spot with Mads Hermansen. Kilman scores his penalty and we've won the cup.
So a slightly sheepish-looking Jarrod Bowen picks up the Boyle Sports Cup and Diouf gets to pick up a trophy before he's played a league match. The quadruple remains on!