Europa Conference League preview: West Ham seeking another win

The Hammers return to action after seeing their Premier League clash against Newcastle postponed due to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II last week. 

They suffered a slight scare in their opener against FCSB but recovered to claim a 3-1 victory courtesy of goals from Jarrod Bowen, Emerson and Michail Antonio. 

Their hosts in Silkeborg were downed in the latter stages against Belgian outfit Anderlecht, although David Moyes (59) is wary the problems the Danish side could pose on the artificial surface at the JYSK Park Stadium. 

“It’s given me some thoughts,” Moyes said. “We respect that it’s an artificial pitch, we have some decisions to make. 

“As a player, I played on a plastic pitch for three years. In modern football, I don’t see the top level players really wanting to play on astro turf pitches and I completely respect it.”

The unplanned weekend off for West Ham will have allowed Moyes to give more thought to the fixture, although he will have some injury concerns to be worried about. 

Tomas Soucek is still carrying an ankle problem, while Maxwel Cornet picked up a knock in the FCSB triumph. 

Elsewhere, Hearts will be keen to move on from their harrowing 4-0 defeat at home to Turkish side Basaksehir when they travel to face RFS in Latvia. 

The Scottish outfit also saw their match at the weekend postponed and will be looking to use the extra time to place themselves on the board in Group A. 

RFS, meanwhile, withstood an onslaught from Fiorentina in their first game but managed to leave Italy with a hard-fought point.