Kurt Zouma is well aware of the threat that Bayer Leverkusen pose, but has warned that West Ham are not to be underestimated.

Over the past few seasons, West Ham have overcome some amazing challenges. From being the first team to knock Sevilla out of the Europa League (who have won the competition more time than any other teams and had never been knocked out by an English team) to winning the Conference League – this is a team that defies all odds.

However, their toughest challenge yet begins tonight, as the Hammers travel to Germany to face 41-games-unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen. Captain Kurt Zouma knows how hard it will be to be the ones to end their run, but believes that they have the quality to do so.

“It could be the toughest [test I’ve faced in Europe with West Ham] because they haven’t lost for 41 games, but it’s also a challenge for us because we know how well they’ve played this season,” he conceded. “It’s going to be a good game to play in, a tough game, but we’re still confident we can do something.”

“I think it’s going to be a challenge. As we know how well they play in Europe and their domestic league, but we know what we have as well and how dangerous we can be,” he continued. “We know how well we can play, like we did in the home game against Freiburg.”

“Like I said, we know how tough it’s going to be over the two legs, but hopefully we can get a good result on Thursday and next week. We believe in ourselves and our togetherness will help.”

Despite what some are expecting, Zouma says they have no intention of shutting up shop and that they will do everything in their power to come back to East London with an advantage. “Everything is possible,” the Frenchman said. “We work on things tactically and we have got to be spot-on and ready to suffer sometimes but also we can hurt them, I would say. We want to make it tough for them as well and hopefully Thursday it’ll be a good game to watch and hopefully we can get a good result.”

“We all play the game to win [on Thursday]. It’s all about winning. We know we are missing a few key players, but we’ve got a good squad and everyone here is ready to play and give 100 percent.”

As difficult as it may be, the goal at this stage has to be winning the competition. Even if they do come out on top against Leverkusen, they still have an extremely tough semi-final and final to go but Zouma could not help but reveal that he is already thinking about lifting that trophy.

“It’s a huge honour for me, especially leading the team to the quarter-finals of the Europa League, which is something I never dreamed I would do before,” Zouma confirmed. “It was a dream as a kid, to be the captain.”

“Seriously, I’m very lucky to be the captain of this amazing team, especially with a great group of players, top players, inside and outside the pitch, so I’m very proud.”

“It would be a dream and almost an objective [to lift a trophy as West Ham captain], I would say. We are not too far away, even though there are tough games to go. It’s going to be tough, but we all believe we can do it. We have done quite well the last two years in Europe and hopefully we can do as well this year.”