West Ham fight back to defeat AZ, late strike gives Basel advantage against Fiorentina

West Ham United came surging back with goals from Said Benrahma and Michail Antonio to beat AZ Alkmaar of the Netherlands 2-1 after trailing at halftime in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final on Thursday.

The Premier League side is now in a strong position to reach the first European final since 1976 as they head to the AZ Stadium in Alkmaar for the return next Thursday.

Benrahma equalised with a 67th-minute penalty and Antonio poached the winner nine minutes later after Tijani Reijnders had thrashed home a long-range effort to give the Dutch visitors a shock 41st-minute lead.

West Ham produced a dominant second-half performance and might have won by more as they finished much stronger against a tiring Dutch side.

AZ begun brightly and Reijnders scored with a rasping shot from well outside the penalty area that caught out West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola with a difficult bounce as it skidded across the surface.

The goal was awarded despite home protests that West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta had been fouled and lost possession in midfield, allowing AZ to move the ball swiftly upfield and tee up Reijnders for his shot.

West Ham’s second-half pressure put the Dutch in difficulty, although the equaliser came from a mistake by AZ goalkeeper Matt Ryan, whose timing as he came out to for an aerial challenge on Jarrod Bowen was off, and instead of getting a touch to the ball, he punched the West Ham forward in the face.

There was little disputing the award of the penalty and Benrahma made no mistake from the spot.

West Ham forced the win after more uncertainty from Ryan at a corner, as he failed to come off his line and allowed Declan Rice to chip the ball into the danger zone where Nayef Aguerd’s header was cleared off the line by Yukinari Sugawara, only for Antonio to poke the rebound into the net.

“We knew AZ were a decent team,” Antonio said. “We made it difficult by conceding the first goal. But we’ll take the 2-1 to their place and hopefully get the win.”

There were further chances for Benrahma, Bowen and substitute Danny Ings in the closing stages as West Ham looked for a larger lead to take to the return leg, knowing that AZ have won all eight home matches in this season’s Europa Conference League.

Basel strike late to secure victory at Fiorentina

A stoppage-time goal from Zeki Amdouni earned Basel a 2-1 win at Fiorentina in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final on Thursday.

The Swiss Super League side are now in a solid position to become the first team from their country to reach a European final.

Fiorentina’s semi-final curse continued as they remain winless in their last nine European last-four matches and ending that streak will be tough as Basel have only lost two of their last 13 European matches.

“In my opinion, we played a good game. Teams like Basel can take advantage of their chances,” Fiorentina manager Vincenzo Italiano said.

“Our main problem was not scoring the second goal when we were dominating the game.”

Basel thought they had taken an early lead but the effort was ruled out for offside following a VAR check.

Arthur Cabral headed Fiorentina into the lead after 25 minutes with his seventh goal of this season’s competition but he did not celebrate out of respect for his former club Basel where he played from 2019-2022.

Fiorentina dominated the possession but Basel slowly established a foothold in the game and became more threatening as it wore on.

Andy Diouf equalised after 71 minutes with a well-placed low shot from just outside the box and Amdouni silenced the Italian fans three minutes into added time when he fired home from 10 yards after a free kick was floated towards the back post.

“We knew that they’re dangerous from set-pieces and they punished us twice from those situations,” Italiano said.

“They’ll defend with low blocks, we will have to avoid the mistake we made today in allowing them to counter-attack.”

The return leg will be played in Basel next Thursday with the winners to face West Ham United or AZ Alkmaar in Prague on June 7.