West Ham’s Lukasz Fabianski is confident that the Hammers can still progress into the Europa League quarter-finals despite a 1-0 deficit.

Sometimes luck just is not on your side and that was certainly the case for West Ham’s trip to Freiburg. It started with severe transport issues for fans which meant it was even harder than usual for them to get to Germany. Then, when it came to the game, the Irons were unlucky not to find the back of the net, and even more so not to get a last minute penalty.

Despite being the better side, the Hammers lost 1-0 in the end but goalkeeper Fabianski believes their European experience could be the deciding factor in the second leg. “It’s a very frustrating result,” the shot-stopper conceded when speaking to the official site. “After a poor first 45 minutes I think we controlled the game better in the second half. We had some chances, but in the end they scored the one that counted.”

“But, we’ve been in similar situations to this before, and I think now is when our experience could be key. Maybe the extra pressure will push us on to get the win we need. We know we will have to perform better, though. Overall we weren’t good enough tonight, we need more energy and there are lots of things we’ll be looking at and wanting to do better.”

While everyone involved with West Ham was outraged with the fact that a blatant handball was not given as a penalty, the former Poland international confessed that he never got a clear look at the incident. 

“The penalty incident was very far away, and I haven’t seen the replays, but it was strange that it took so long. Once the referee goes to the screen you think that luck might be on your side, but it wasn’t meant to be tonight and we have to move on.”

“We can always count on our fans, and we really appreciate their efforts to come and support us as always. They always turn up in their numbers and back us, and we know it will be the same next week. Hopefully we can get the job done for them.”

With the all important home leg being a 5:45 kick off, many of the claret and blue army will be unable to make it to the game but it is vital that those who can make it as intense of an atmosphere as possible. If the players perform how we know they can, there is no reason we can not have a repeat of that special win against Sevilla.