West Ham are set to play in the Olympic Stadium for the first time today as they host NK Domzale in the second leg of the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League.
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It will smash the current attendance record for a home West Ham match as the club expect a full capacity of around 54,000 for the Thursday night game. This is of course being expanded so that by the Bournemouth match any West Ham home game can hold around 60,000 people.
It will be a very emotional day for a lot of fans who never imagined they would watch a West Ham match at any stadium other than Upton Park, and I for one am just as excited as I was the first time I went to the Boleyn Ground. The club could achieve so much with this new base.
Onto the actual game and I’m actually excited that there’s something to play for in the match tonight, as it brings a competitive buzz to the game that would be lacking if West Ham had been 4-0 up from the game in Slovenia.
Obviously it would be nicer if we were 2-1 up, and it will be a big shame if we lose, but we’ve packed the ground and I’m sure the players will be well up for putting on a great spectacle for the fans who are there.
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However most West Ham fans are confident of picking up the win without too much hassle, although I think NK Domzale will push to play the way they did at home although playing in front of over 50,000 fans who don’t want you to win could be intimidating for a side whose home ground caters for less than 3,000.
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The Top Flight
West Ham are without some key players for the match due to both injury and late return to training. Angelo Ogbonna and James Collins only returned to training this week and will not take part, whilst talisman Dimitri Payet will return to training tomorrow and is unlikely to take part even in the first match against Chelsea.
Aaron Cresswell and Manuel Lanzini are definitely out through injury and rumour has it that Gokhan Tore was training separately yesterday and is likely to miss the game in order to ensure his fitness for the start of the season.
It remains to be seen whether Bilic will persist with Antonio at right back in tonight’s game after the player reportedly told Bilic he would prefer to concentrate on being a winger as his primary position, although he did state that if the manager asked him to fill in he would always be willing to.
I can’t wait for the game and all the pictures of the ground look amazing, make sure to follow us on twitter for all the small updates or check out our full article on the stadium here. I will also tweet and post videos to Facebook of my evening so make sure to follow us there.