Lucas Paqueta has sent a one word social media post after West Ham bowed out of Europe without him last night.
West Ham are out of the Europa League after a 3-1 aggregate defeat to German invincibles Bayer Leverkusen.
The Hammers put in a brilliant performance – arguably one of their best of the season – as they pushed the Bundesliga champions all the way.
That’s despite missing key players Lucas Paqueta, Emerson Palmieri and Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Michail Antonio gave West Ham a deserved first half lead to claw it back to 2-1 on aggregate.
David Moyes’ side missed a host of chances to level the tie before the break.
Star missing when it mattered most for West Ham
And that – along with that killer late second goal in Germany – is what ultimately cost them in their bid to make a third successive European semi-final.
West Ham completely ran out of gas in the second half.
That was in no small part down to a lack of depth on the bench, not helped by the suspension of duo Paqueta and Emerson.
Paqueta has been poor of late and frustrated his manager and fans by getting a brainless booking in Leverkusen.
He also upset West Ham’s travelling fans in Germany by going straight down the tunnel after that game.
Reports suggest Paqueta was not in attendance to cheer on his teammates at the London Stadium last night either.
Paqueta’s one word social post as Hammers bow out
West Ham played brilliantly well in his absence and it’s unclear whether he was actually at the game supporting his teammates.
Paqueta was watching somewhere, though. And he put out a one word social media post after West Ham bowed out of Europe without him.
Taking to Instagram Stories, Paqueta – who looks set to join Man City in the summer – posted a picture of Mohammed Kudus and the 1-1 scoreline.
And in his native Portuguese captioned it: “Orgulho” which translates to “Pride” along with Hammers and heart emojis.
Would Paqueta have made the difference?
It’s difficult to say whether having Paqueta for the second leg would’ve made the difference for West Ham.
He was frustrating in the first leg and has been off form of late.
Paqueta is clearly a magnificent player. But he can at times overplay which slows West Ham’s attack down and allows the opposition to get back in shape.
The Hammers looked more of a direct threat last night without him.
And had he been available he would undoubtedly have started.
I think he would have made the big difference in that second half, though. When West Ham ran out of steam he could have helped find a different way of creating chances as Moyes’ side could not sustain their high-intensity press.
But his suspension meant the Hammers had to make do without him. And the rest, as they say, is history.