Team news and stats ahead of Rapid Vienna vs West Ham in the Europa League group stage on Thursday; kick-off 5.45pm.
Team news
West Ham have already booked their place in the competition’s knockout rounds after an impressive start to their Europa League campaign, but victory would ensure they top the group and avoid a play-off tie with a Champions League third-place group side.
However, with 12 matches scheduled before January 1, Moyes has left Michail Antonio and Lukasz Fabianksi in London and he insisted that the club want to give opportunities to the full squad.
“Everybody will see during the competition we’ve tried to make sure we mix the first team and we mix all the players who are in it as much as we can. We’ve got a good squad,” the Hammers boss said.
“The players have all performed really well throughout the competition, so we do want to use them all. We want to give people opportunities, but we can’t just always get everyone a game.
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“We’ve got to try to stay strong in the games, we know the opposition are tough so we have to go in still with as much of a strong side as we can.
“You talk about Manchester City but the following Wednesday we’ve got Brighton and then we’ll be at Chelsea so it’s probably just a programme that makes these games new to us and a bit more difficult.”
How to follow
Follow Rapid Vienna vs West Ham with our dedicated live blog across Sky Sports’ digital platforms.
Group H – State of play
West Ham need a win from their final two matches to ensure they seal top spot in Group H.
The Hammers could secure the group in Austria but if they do not, then David Moyes’ side get another shot at home to Dinamo Zagreb in December.
Opta stats
SK Rapid Wien’s only previous European game against West Ham was on MD2 of this season’s UEFA Europa League, losing 2-0. They have lost all three games against English sides in the competition, also losing twice to Arsenal in 2020-21.Excluding qualifiers, English teams are unbeaten in their last 27 European matches against Austrian sides (W22 D5) since Arsenal lost 1-0 to FK Austria Wien in the 1991-92 European Cup.This is SK Rapid Wien’s 300th match in European competition – including qualifiers, they are the first Austrian side to reach that milestone.West Ham United are unbeaten in their four UEFA Europa League matches this season (W3 D1) – they last had a longer run in major UEFA European competition between March 1965 and March 1966, a run of nine that included winning the 1965 Cup Winners’ Cup final.Said Benrahma has scored three goals in two UEFA Europa League starts this season for West Ham – the last Hammers player to score more in a single major UEFA European season was David Cross in 1980-81 (six in the Cup Winners’ Cup).
All the key Europa League dates
Round of 16: March 10 & 17 2022
Quarter-finals: April 7 & 14 2022
Semi-finals: April 28 & May 5 2022
Final: May 18 2022 (Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, Seville)