Carlton Cole has branded the officiating in West Ham United’s 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen as “diabolical” as they crashed out of the Europa League.
The Hammers came into the second leg at the London Stadium on Thursday (18 April) trailing 2-0 from Germany but took an early lead through Michail Antonio’s header, however, failed to score a second goal before Jeremie Frimpong put the tie beyond doubt late in the game.
But the headlines all came from referee Jose Maria Sanchez who handed out 10 yellow cards to players and two red cards to backroom staff over the 90 minutes, and the TNT Sports pundit wasn’t impressed by his performance.
“Proud of that team performance last night,” he said on his personal X account (19 April).
“Thought the lads played outstanding, gave ourselves a little too much to do after the second goal in the first game, just a bit short on numbers at the moment.
“Officiating was diabolical, but the fans were amazing.”
Referee isn’t why West Ham lost to Bayer Leverkusen
As bad as the refereeing performance was on the night at the London Stadium, it wasn’t the reason why West Ham went out of the Europa League.
The first leg was a strong performance but ultimately David Moyes gave them too much respect and two late goals meant it was always an uphill task from that point onwards.
But on top of that, Leverkusen are just a better team than the Irons right now and there is no shame in admitting that. They are now unbeaten in 44 games in all competitions, having not lost a game all season and having already won the German Bundesliga.
Just like against Manchester City, there are times where you will come up against a team better than you and they deserved the win over the two legs.
With that said, Moyes’ side did themselves proud in the second leg especially but ultimately just fell short. Now all attention turns to the Premier League, and trying to get European football for a fourth consecutive season.
