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Michail Antonio and David Moyes take aim at officials as Bayer Leverkusen knock out West Ham

Michail Antonio and David Moyes take aim at officials as Bayer Leverkusen knock out West Ham in the Europa League quarter final second leg.

Michail Antonio criticised the officiating and likened it to “playing against 14” following West Ham’s 3-1 aggregate loss to Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League quarter-final.

Despite Antonio’s early goal giving hope to David Moyes’s team, Leverkusen ultimately emerged victorious with Jeremie Frimpong’s deflected shot sealing their fate.

The missed opportunities by West Ham before half-time proved costly, as Frimpong’s late equaliser secured Leverkusen’s place in the semi-finals where they’ll play against Roma.

Antonio expressed his dissatisfaction with the referee’s decisions, particularly those made by José María Sánchez, who faced boos from the crowd at the end of the match.

West Ham goalscorer Michail Antonio to TNT Sports: “Obviously we are disappointed. Last week we gave them a bit too much respect, but this week we came out and showed them what we can do.

“I felt like I did not get a decision all game. I felt a bit frustrated. We felt like we deserved more. But it’s football, sometimes the decisions don’t go your way. We move on, and build on that and try to get into the Europa League next year.

“We put in a good performance and we had quite a few chances. Obviously they are a quality team.”

On the decisions that went against him: “It does not feel like you are playing against 11 men, it feels like you are playing against 13 or 14 including the two linos.

“You just have to keep pushing and try and make the decisions go your way. And they just were not. We had to keep playing our way and keep being professional.

“We are very proud of ourselves. To achieve what we have achieved over the last four years is incredible. Four back-to-back years in European quarter-finals I would never have thought that. We were a yoyo team, into Europe, then fighting for relegation.”

David Moyes said: I think the players were unbelievable. They’d done everything we’d asked of them, hoped of maybe, except for scoring the second or third goal in the first half and we had the chances to do so, ran out of energy in the second half, which you can’t keep going the way we did in the first half. But I’m really proud of what they’ve done. Its worth third quarter final in three years, so it’s a decent achievement.

Interviewer: Do you think that was some of the best football that West Ham have played this season?

Moyes: I think we’ve played some really good football. I think we, the players, will know. I’ve been at them a lot. I think we’ve not played as well as we should have done recently, but I think that tonight we’ve done about everything. We were committed and pressed really well when we had to and passed the ball well. We got the opportunity to.

Interviewer: Did it almost feel like half time just came too soon because you were in such a good moment at that point?

Moyes: Yeah, but I was determined to get the players back out as quick as I could. It would have been a five minute turnaround for me and back out and got on with it as much as we could because they’ve been so good and we wanted to keep them on the ropes, but their changes made a difference as well. And obviously they had a chance to regroup and, look, we had a terrible night with officiating, with a terrible night with. We were out in the first game. You know, we get Lucas Paqueta booked and all sorts, so it didn’t get any better tonight.

Interviewer: I’ve got to say, I wanted to ask you about that because Michael Antonio certainly felt he got no decisions. The crowd made it known at full time their thoughts. I mean, was there any justification for you from the fourth official you stood near explaining any of the decisions?

Moyes: No. Maybe their bench all speak Spanish and their manager speak Spanish and I don’t. Maybe that had something to do. I should have learnt my Spanish better when I was out there.

Interviewer: But look, as you said, it is your third quarter final, which is phenomenal and it’s all still to play for in the Premier League. And a fourth European campaign is still on the cards.

Moyes: Yeah, were still in there fighting and look, tonight we’ve put a team who’s, if we’ve been honest, they’re at a level above us. But we ran them really close and when I look back now. I’m just looking at, you know, the goals we lost late on in Leverkusen, which were, you know, we’ve done a brilliant job against them out there in the first leg. I thought we’d done a really good job tonight for long parts of tonight’s game. So overall, I’ve got no qualms with the players. They’ve done a great job and to be in Europe has been great. It’s also been tough, but it’s been great.

This is how fans reacted after Michail Antonio and David Moyes take aim at officials as Bayer Leverkusen knock out West Ham…

@jaymeeteewhu98: Refereeing was awful last night, from then on he completely lost control and became trigger happy with yellow cards. ⚒️🫧

@Smackit0: That ref should never ref again. Never seen a ref so useless in my life

@youlesie23: Bloke was getting wrestled every time the ball got played up to him. Said it before, I’ll say it again. Replace the PL refs with La Liga refs, and you’ll be begging for Anthony Taylor within a month. Decision making of Peter Bankes, ego of Mike Dean. That’s Spanish refs for you.

@WHUCharlie_: He’s bang on but I garuntee he gets some sort of ban or punishment foreign referee’s are absolutely awful 99% of the time especially when an English team is involved

@Denny2hammers: Screwed over by a Spanish referee when we lost to Frankfurt and another one against Leverkusen. What the heck did we do to the Spanish?

@Mark_Higgins69: Hard to argue with…terrible refereeing.

@jhammond1993: Awful referee. Didnt give us anything all game.

@willearle_: Bang on corrupt as fuck worst ref I have ever seen and we see some shit week in week out in the prem

@michaeljohnbad1: 10 yellow cards must have had a bet 🤬

@davejonesmono4: Ain’t wrong it was pure engineering by UEFA

@MathiesonF61373: Ref lost control second half no doubt. Tie was lost with the first leg performance especially the second goal. Wasn’t to be, we’ve caught a very good team in a period where they can’t do much wrong

@nickyboyy9: Absolutely spot on what an absolute disgrace

@Fulhamtilidie: Ref was a joke to be fair and should never ref a game at that level again

@Fadingbubbles: Genuinely the worst/most biased ref display I’ve seen since that chelsea Barcelona game all those years ago. Oh, and possibly the ref in the Man U arsenal game where arsenal lost for the first time in 50 games. It takes some balls to give everything to the away team for 90 mins

@whuharley18: you fucking tell them mich son

@MeredewE29: I lost count of the number of times he was grabbed and pulled back, and nothing happened. It was ridiculous.

@cfegan17: Hate saying the ref was to blame. But he ruined the game

@PLifesson: What a load of cobblers … decent football for 45 minutes shame they can’t do that week in week out or as usual did I miss something

@whualfie_: he’s speaking the truth

@AmarMarwa: 100% bang on, the ref was a disgrace. Proud of the performance

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