West Ham forward Michail Antonio spoke of his delight at his return back to first team action and being able to show Hammers fans his quality again after a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

The Jamaican international had been out injured since November and in recent weeks has made a few appearances for the Hammers coming off the bench in the Premier League. On Thursday night, in the second leg against Freiburg, he made his first start since his return from injury, leading West Ham’s forward line.

The 33 year old looked back to his best and played an important part as David Moyes’ side came back from a goal down to demolish Freiburg 5-0 and seal their place in the Europa League quarter finals.

Speaking to the club’s official website after the game against Freiburg, Antonio emphasised how he and the West Ham squad are eager for more European success after lifting the Conference League trophy last season: “We had to turn it around (against Sevilla before) and we had to make sure we did it again this year. One thing about us in Europe is that we definitely know how to play and know how to go far in it, so hopefully we can do the same as we did last year.”

Antonio went on to discuss the confidence he and his teammates have when playing in Europe for West Ham: “We are always thinking about winning it, whenever we get into Europe we believe we can win it. There are a lot of big names out there, but we know how to win games in Europe.”

West Ham are blessed with real quality in the forward area thanks to the likes of Lucas Paqueta, Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus, who all played their role against Freiburg with Paqueta opening the scoring, Jarrod Bowen getting a goal and an assist, and Mohammed Kudus scoring two wonderful goals.

Antonio praised the quality of his fellow Hammers forwards, telling the club’s official website: “Jarrod bags goals, Kudus also scores goals and Lucas adds goals, but he is more of an assist man. But what we have going forward is frightening as we have got pace, power, strength and the ability to score goals.

Written by Finlay Jackson