David Moyes insists they take all competition serious ahead of their Europa League game against Lyon.
West Ham manager David Moyes claims they treat all competition as the same whether it’s the League cup or the FA Cup.
The Hammers will host French side Lyon in the Europa League today and Moyes believes the setup is quite different.
“We take every competition really seriously, whether it be the League Cup or the FA Cup, Moyes said ahead of the clash against Lyon.
“We treat them all with the same importance, but this one is a little bit more special because we’ve not been among the European teams for years. It’s really important for us.
“We’re playing against a team who two years ago were in the Champions League semi-final so we’d be crazy to be thinking any further than this first leg. We have to realise this is a different set-up to Sevilla now because we’re at home in the first leg of a quarter-final and the game might be slightly different.”
He added that they don’t really know much about the French side but insists they will get to know each other after the first leg.
“Lyon are a side who we’ve got big respect for and the way they’ve done things over many years. Most people would consider them a Champions League team, because over many years they’ve been in and around it.
“I remember going to watch them working for UEFA two or three years ago when they played Juventus – it’s not that long ago they were really challenging the top teams.
“We’ve not played against them to know them exactly, but we’ve know them as individuals and have watched them in the French league. We’ll know much more about them after we’ve played them in the first game, as they will with us.
“We’re really looking forward to it, a great occasion for us at West Ham, and we’ll want to try and keep this run going if we can.
“I think it’s great we’ve got excitement and have raised the expectation level at West Ham, and generally there’s more talk about West Ham than there’s been before and that’s part of being in the competition. But ultimately if you want to be kept talking about and keep up with the top teams, and be in European competition you’ve got to win mainly your domestic football games.”
West Ham United are 6th on the Premier League table and the team is pushing harder to get into the top four as well.
Moyes made it know that they are not just focusing on the Europa League alone but rather focusing on their League position as well.
“We have to keep our focus on them all. We can’t say we’re just focusing on the Europa League – we’re trying to focus on our league position as well.”
