Following West Ham’s elimination from Europe without him last night, Lucas Paqueta took to social media to publish a single sentence.
After losing to German powerhouse Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 on aggregate, West Ham were eliminated from the Europa League.
The Hammers gave the Bundesliga champions a real fight, putting on perhaps one of their greatest performances of the year.
This is true even with the absence of crucial players Konstantinos Mavropanos, Emerson Palmieri, and Lucas Paqueta.
West Ham recovered to take a 2-1 aggregate lead thanks to a well-earned first-half lead from Michail Antonio.
Before the half, David Moyes’ team had numerous opportunities to draw the game but wasted them.
Star missing when it mattered most for West Ham
And that – along with that killer late second goal in Germany – is what ultimately cost them in their bid to make a third successive European semi-final.
West Ham completely ran out of gas in the second half.
The suspension of Paqueta and Emerson did not help either, and that contributed significantly to the lack of depth on the bench.
Due to his recent bad performance, Paqueta angered his boss and supporters by receiving a foolish booking at Leverkusen.
By leaving the game early and heading straight down the tunnel, he also infuriated the German supporters of West Ham.
According to reports, Paqueta did not show up to support his teammates at the London Stadium last night.
Paqueta’s one word social post as Hammers bow out
West Ham played brilliantly well in his absence and it’s unclear whether he was actually at the game supporting his teammates.
Paqueta was watching somewhere, though. And he put out a one word social media post after West Ham bowed out of Europe without him.
Taking to Instagram Stories, Paqueta – who looks set to join Man City in the summer – posted a picture of Mohammed Kudus and the 1-1 scoreline.
And in his native Portuguese captioned it: “Orgulho” which translates to “Pride” along with Hammers and heart emojis
Would Paqueta have made the difference?
It’s difficult to say whether having Paqueta for the second leg would’ve made the difference for West Ham.
He was frustrating in the first leg and has been off form of late.
Paqueta is clearly a magnificent player. But he can at times overplay which slows West Ham’s attack down and allows the opposition to get back in shape.
The Hammers looked more of a direct threat last night without him.
And had he been available he would undoubtedly have started.
I think he would have made the big difference in that second half, though. When West Ham ran out of steam he could have helped find a different way of creating chances as Moyes’ side could not sustain their high-intensity press.
But his suspension meant the Hammers had to make do without him. And the rest, as they say, is history.
