David Moyes hopes West Ham and Olympiacos fans behave in Greece
Tensions are high in Athens after Olympiacos’ league match with rivals Panathinaikos on Sunday had to be abandoned.
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Your support makes all the difference.David Moyes has urged West Ham and Olympiacos supporters to behave themselves when the teams meet in Greece in the Europa League.
Tensions are high in Athens after Olympiacos’ league match with rivals Panathinaikos on Sunday had to be abandoned after an opposition player was hit by a firecracker.
Olympiacos have subsequently issued a warning to their supporters against throwing missiles and using laser pointers, which has become big problem in Greek football.
Meanwhile, West Ham fans were banned from their last European outing in Freiburg due to missile throwing during the Europa Conference League final victory over Fiorentina in June.
Hammers boss Moyes said at his pre-match press conference: “They’ve got great support here, fantastic enthusiasm, and it’s fantastic to come to a football city where the football really matters.
“You want the passion and the atmosphere but we also want good behaviour from our supporters and Olympiacos supporters.
“It’s a big game, but it’s important that everyone works together and end up having a good night.
“I think all we want is a good football game. You have to support your team well. You’re not doing your club any favours if you’re getting stadium bans or your team is getting thrown out of Europe.
“You have to be well behaved and we want the supporters to be that.”
Thursday’s match gives West Ham the chance to bounce back from Sunday’s painful 4-1 defeat at Aston Villa.
Greek defender Dinos Mavropanos said: “For the game against Aston Villa, it was a bad day against a good team.
“But our schedule is really busy so we needed to learn from it and start to focus on this game. We’ve been doing that. We’re here, we’ve worked hard and we’re looking forward to the match.”
Vladimir Coufal has not travelled due to a knock but fellow full-backs Ben Johnson and Aaron Cresswell are back in the squad after spells out.