Tomáš Souček was thrilled to see new teammate Gianluca Scamacca open his West Ham United goalscoring account on his first start in Claret and Blue.
The Italy striker rose highest to head home Maxwel Cornet’s cross in the first half to put his new side ahead in the first leg of our UEFA Europa Conference League play-off against Viborg FF, and kickstart our second consecutive year in Europe in style.
The Hammers would go on to win 3-1 at the London Stadium, with second-half goals from Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio confirming a two-cushion ahead of the second leg either side of Jacob Bonde’s headed reply for the visitors.
And Souček was pleased to see Scamacca get up and running, particularly as the No7 netted in the Czech Republic international's own trademark style: a towering header.
“I am happy that Gianluca scored on his first start,” Souček enthused. "It is important for us and for him. He scored a great goal and showed very good quality.
“I said we needed to be clinical after [Nottingham] Forest and we scored three goals: that’s a good answer. We need to finish our chance like today [in the future]."
Souček also stressed that the tie is by no means over, and the Hammers will have to be at their best to secure their place in the Europa Conference League group stage when the second leg takes place in Denmark on 25 August.
He admitted it was a tough challenge in east London, but one the Hammers dealt with professionally, despite the absences of suspended trio Aaron Cresswell, Declan Rice and manager David Moyes.
“It was a very hard game because there are no easy games in Europe,” added Souček, who went all the way to the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals in 2018/19 with Slavia Prague, who will incidentally host the final of this season’s Europa Conference League next June.
“We are happy that we beat them by two goals because they played well at our stadium. [Next week] will be a very tough game. I just hope that we come there and play as if the game is level – and win.”
