West Ham United vs Rapid Vienna

West Ham United and Rapid Vienna will lock horns at the London Stadium in a seemingly winnable UEFA Europa League Group H fixture for the home side.

West Ham marked their return to European action after a five-year absence with a comfortable 2-0 away win over Dinamo Zagreb to take control of Group H from Matchday 1. Overwhelming pre-match favorites, the ‘Hammers’ are gunning for another eye-catching home performance in Europe, having won 12 of their 17 overall European games at the London Stadium (D2, L3). Highly-rated boss David Moyes has an ulterior motive, having failed to negotiate a European group stage campaign on all three previous attempts as a manager. The Premier League giants have been exceptional this season, losing just once in eight fixtures across all competitions to date (W5, D2), courtesy of a 2-1 defeat to Manchester United at this venue. West Ham’s recent competitive matches have been notably tight, though, with four of the last five yielding a full-time margin of under 1.5 goals.

On the other hand, Rapid suffered late heartbreak in their Europa League opener, falling to a 92nd-minute loss to Genk on home soil. Demons from the past are hovering above the Austrians’ heads, as they failed to make it out of last season’s Europa League group stage after losing their opening two matches. ‘Die Grün-Weißen’ cannot find comfort in their recent competitive form either, having gone winless in their last five fixtures in all competitions since a 3-2 away win over Zorya in the Europa League play-offs (D1, L4 – 90 mins only). What’s more, the visitors have lost 69.23% of their away matches in the Europa League proper (W5, D3), ending on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline against West Ham’s fellow Premier League rivals Arsenal in their most recent such clash. Indeed, they have lost all but one of their five away European meetings with English sides (W1).