Viborg vs West Ham United

Heavily fancied to reach the Europa Conference League group stages for the first time in the club’s history, West Ham United head to the Energi Viborg Arena to take on Viborg in the return leg of their playoff tie.

Danish Superliga minnows Viborg have a mountain to climb to reach the group phase of a major European competition for the first time after a 3-1 first-leg collapse in England. To make things worse, the Danes followed up London heartbreak with a disheartening 1-0 away defeat to domestic rivals Randers, making it three losses from five competitive outings (W2). Interestingly, none of Viborg’s ten matches across all competitions this season have ended level (W7, L3), with 60% of them seeing the winner keep a clean sheet. The hosts’ chances of pulling off an upset against the Premier League heavyweights are slim. Yet after winning both previous Europa Conference League qualifiers at home ‘to nil,’ they’re unlikely to give up without a fight.

In the meantime, West Ham may have claimed a routine first-leg win over Viborg to get on the cusp of reaching European competition proper for the second season running, but manager David Moyes is a man in danger right now. It’s been a thoroughly underwhelming start to the new Premier League season for the ‘Hammers’ as they’ve lost all three matches without scoring, including defeats to sub-par Nottingham Forest and Brighton. Moyes has gone from hero to zero, with enraged West Ham fans already requesting his head on a silver platter. Things do not look nice from Moyes’ point of view, considering his men have lost two of their last three European fixtures on hostile turf (W1), failing to score on both occasions.