Angelo Ogbonna says West Ham must keep the same intensity that they showed against Bayer Leverkusen for the rest of the season.

As it stands, West Ham sit behind both Manchester United and Newcastle United by just 2 points but have played a game more. Earning enough points before the end of the season to secure European football is going to be no easy task.

However, in the week, the Hammers showed just how well they can play with an immense display against Bayer Leverkusen. According to Angelo Ogbonna, the only way they can achieve their goals this season is by performing at that level every game. “This Club is already big and our fans have always been famous because they are one of the best in the country,” the defender told the official site.

“They always support us. We lost 1-0 at Freiburg and won 5-0 here because the fans were behind us. The potential of the Club has always been big and it’s not something like we are talking [about] just now.”

“We gave everything on Thursday. We were disappointed for the result, of course. Maybe we showed a little bit of respect for them in the first leg, but the second game was unbelievable. From the start we were on top and we deserved to get three goals in the first half. The energy, all the fans behind us, I think the togetherness was there.”

“We were unlucky to concede in the end, but our standards were high and we have to keep them that way for the rest of the season.”

Understandably, Ogbonna was keen to state how important it is to take things one game at a time and that starts with today’s trip to Crystal Palace. Anything other than a win today is not good enough and to do that they need to carry on their momentum from Thursday.

“The target of the team is the [same level of] performance,” the Italian concluded. “What we showed on Thursday was something really special. We’re focusing game-by-game and we’ll see at the end of the season because we don’t [want to] look too much forwards.”