Have you heard the breaking news that West Ham are massive?
I have heard we are really massive, I have heard that as well and tonight we were massive the way we played. We played in great fashion and deserved it, it was a really good night and in the end one we really enjoyed.
Andriy Yarmolenko again, what a story.
Yes, but it is not just Yarmolenko. His goal is really important and wins us the game but the story is the team it wasn’t just Yarmolenko. Yarmolenko, the message and his name will get mentioned all around Europe and the continent and throughout the world and I hope the message gets out about what is happening in Ukraine if people do not know about it. But the story tonight is not all about Yarmolenko but the performance of West Ham, the football club, how the club reacted to a big night in Europe for the first night in a long time, and how good the atmosphere in the stadium was.
You are into the last-eight, having out Sevilla out are you favourites?
No, because when you look at Barcelona, Leipzig and a few others you have to say there are a lot of big clubs in it. But we put out a team of serial winners, when we got the draw it was the tie of the round and probably the hardest tie in the round so that will give us confidence. Over the two games, they were really good games, tough games, very close and they are second in La Liga. Some people say Spanish football is not quite the same but we have watched Atletico Madrid this week, Villareal and Sevilla are ahead of those two teams at the moment. So we did a really good job putting out a Spanish team tonight because they are really really difficult to play against and they were tonight as well.
People have questioned whether the bubble is going to burst has tonight silenced the doubters?
We are not in a bubble we are climbing a mountain and we are only at base camp and I can see a couple more levels to go to. When I came in I said the biggest thing about West Ham was the potential and I thought untapped in many ways, like tonight, who would have said two years ago we would have 60,000 here to get West Ham to the quarter-finals of the cup I don’t think many would have said that. I see a great chance for things to improve it is a great club in this part of London, really well supported and we can give them a better team to support.
You asked for the atmosphere to be replicated from Sevilla last week.
The atmosphere was brilliant, I think this is a stadium that can host a big European final, a Champions League final, it is a great venue. Maybe what we have not seen here is the chance to play really big games, to have big nights, it was a beautiful night here in London tonight, I thought it was a good game and I thought our players from the first minute were bang at it and never let them off the hook all night, periods when they improved but in the main, I thought we were so good.
Michail Antonio’s performance considering his fitness issues was phenomenal.
When he came off on Sunday I did not think he would make it or Aaron Cresswell either, but when Mich realised it was not his hamstring but it was an abductor injury he felt much more confident about giving it a go and playing, not only that he played 120 minutes as well so it was a great effort from him. There were bits of his performance that were a bit messy but others that made him look a real handful. He had a great chance in the first half before we scored, so we had one or two chances but the game was tight for both teams.
It was a mature performance tonight.
We talked a lot for two days about how we would manage the game, not gung ho but a good speed and in truth if you saw the game and how well or badly however you want to look at it Atletico Madrid handled the game the other night you see the Spanish are excellent at seeing games out and doing the job well. And being 1-0 down it gave us something to chase as we were not favourites tonight and we got ourselves in a position to have a go and you cannot fault the way we went about the job so great credit to the players.
Where does tonight rank in your career?
I have had a couple of nights like this coming from behind so it is certainly in amongst them tonight. But what happens is the next one is always the best, tonight felt fantastic but we have not won the cup, we have to re-focus and get the job done and have another go. We should be excited as there are signs of improvement, and growth, West Ham in the quarter-final by putting out not a minnow but arguably the favourites with a mature performance in Seville and an even better one here tonight.
Declan Rice said Mark Noble was in tears. How much of a role has he played?
He will have to continue playing a big role because we will need him more, he has come on and played well, he did that in Sevilla and I see him being able to give me periods of the games with his maturity and we need it. West Ham we have not had many really big nights and even Mark Noble in his long illustrious career at West Ham might have had some moments in his career but tonight will be a night we all remember for this game but I have not got a medal for tonight.
Tottenham on Sunday, is that the type of match you want that blood and thunder in a derby?
We know the fixture list when you are in these competitions can make it difficult and we have a really difficult week so we will go again and we have a resilient group of players so we will do everything we can for a positive result. We want to stay in a strong position in the Premier League where we have been for near enough two years now and we want to keep it going.
How good is it to reach the quarter-finals with West Ham?
It is great but I need to go further now that is my big thing, I am challenging the players but I have to challenge myself as well and find a way of getting a result in the next game. The biggest thing was this was our first two legged game, how do we handle the first one and the second one and I thought we did really well for a team still learning. We need to keep the players fit and the ones who are injured we need them back because when you get to this stage of the season in the league and the cup it is very hard to do it if you are not at full tilt or have extra players to use. We were not limited tonight but we just felt the team out on the pitch was giving their best and I did not need to make too many changes.
When Soucek scored you were down the touchline, is that when you thought ‘we can actually do this’?
I predicted we would go to extra-time, that was how I saw it going. If we were good enough and we were, I was calm apart from the first goal which was important for the stadium as well. I think the stadium started to believe once we got the goal. The stadium really started to think. We started well for 15 minutes and then Sevilla got a foothold in the game but the crowd started to believe. We had played relatively well but our quality into the box was poor, we had some half-chances we didn’t take and I was saying ‘my goodness are we going to get something here?’ But then we stood a decent cross up and we got a great Tomas Soucek header which we have been waiting for most of the season. Tomas is getting his goal tally moving again and it was the best bit of quality in terms of making a chance and finishing it.
Will the players have tomorrow off?
No, we are in, there is no let up in this game, unfortunately. It is like that because of the amount of games we play and then if you want to be a big club you have to get used to it. The players have to get used to coming in all the time and there will be a chance next week for them to get some days off but at the moment heads down and get on with it.
