Despite feeling immense disappointment regarding the result, West Ham’s Lukasz Fabianski is proud of the performance his side displayed.

Over the years, one position West Ham have consistently had top quality goalkeepers. In recent memory though, you will struggle to find one better than Lukasz Fabianski.

When he signed for the Hammers in 2018, many fans were underwhelmed with the signing. Thankfully, the goalie has proved everyone wrong and then some. He has been absolutely phenomenal as a first choice and, more recently, a cup keeper. He’s seen a lot of good performances over the years but, despite it being a frustrating result, he is overjoyed with how West Ham played against Bayer Leverkusen.

“I think we gave a lot into the game. From the first minute we tried to put them under pressure, and I think it really worked for us as we played an amazing game for most of it,” he exclaimed when speaking to WHUFC.com.

“Obviously in the end they made some changes, but we kept on pushing and pushing and our energy levels dropped down a little bit.  They started to control the game a little bit better in terms of possession [after half-time]. I still thought we did enough to win the game or even to score more goals, and I think we can be very proud of our performance tonight.”

“There is a little bit of disappointment, but we can be very proud with how we have gone out, the way we performed and played from the very first minute. They are a very good side, a very good team but I think we put in a very strong performance that we can be very proud of.”

“When you create chances, you always feel as if it can be a key moment. We had some really good chances, even after we scored the goal, but that’s football. We continued to push even after those missed chances and wanted to get that second goal. The second half was a bit different as we put so much in from a physical point of view in the first.”

“We had a plan to try and make the game more heated, for the fans to get involved and to generate an atmosphere which would add extra pressure onto the opposition. We tried to manage things not just on the pitch but off the pitch as well and I think we did a pretty good job.”

Like many fans, Fabianski was keen to point out how the referee struggled to control the game, even though it was a relatively “fair” match between the two teams. “The referee had a tricky game to control and there were some difficult decisions for him, but I think in the end it was a fair game and there wasn’t really anything nasty happening. There was some heat of the moment incidents due to the magnitude of the game, which always adds to the way you react. It all finished with respect at the end and both teams had it for each other.”

“We were aware [of their late threats] but I wouldn’t say they were stronger than us in the last ten minutes, it was just the way that the game naturally evolved as we were trying to chase a second goal. I believe we had a really good game plan coming into the last minutes of the game.”

Now 39-years-old, the former Polish international “wouldn’t have dreamed of any other way of celebrating my birthday,” and went on to explain how important a performance like that can be for pushing on in the final stretch of games this campaign. “I’m proud of myself and the team even though we didn’t go through to the next round, and it was a really beautiful night for us and the Club.”

“I think it’s something special for us [reaching three consecutive quarter-finals on the European stage]. We have the experience of being in Europe for three years and have five games left in the Premier League, where we are in a good position to be able to play in Europe again next season. It’s one of the targets, along with building on the performance tonight as I think it was really good. This [performance] will help us with confidence when it comes to playing the remaining games.”