Kudus bags brace as Hammers put 5 pass Freiburg

Black stars wide-man, Mo Kudus’ stunning double rounded off a superb evening for West Ham, who breezed into the Europa League quarter-finals with a 5-1 aggregate win over Freiburg.

Trailing 1-0 from the first leg in Germany, the Hammers took just 32 minutes to overturn the deficit as Lucas Paqueta and Jarrod Bowen both struck, before Aaron Cresswell gave the Hammers’ a two-goal lead just after half-time.

Then came the first of two exquisite strikes from Kudus. First, the Ghana winger picked the ball up in his own half before beating three defenders and eventually stroking the ball home. Then he rifled home Bowen’s lay-off from the edge of the box to make it five.

“If anyone remembers those dribbling wingers who used to run and take people on with snaky hips and find a way through, that was a little bit of that tonight,” said West Ham manager David Moyes of the first goal.

“That was a brilliant individual goal. It was a Roy of the Rovers-type goal.”

The win gave West Ham a European quarter-final for the third consecutive year, while beating German side Freiburg significantly boosted England’s chance of getting a fifth Champions League place in UEFA’s co-efficient table.