Jarrod Bowen struck at the death as West Ham United beat Fiorentina 2-1 on Wednesday to end a 43-year trophy drought with the Europa Conference League title.
Said Benrahma had opened the scoring for West Ham with a 62nd-minute penalty kick in Prague’s Eden Arena.
This was after Fiorentina captain Cristiano Biraghi was ruled to have handled the ball upon review in a duel with Bowen.
Fiorentina were level five minutes later from a Giacomo Bonaventura strike.
But West Ham had the last laugh in the 90th minute when Bowen took up a defence-splitting pass from Lucas Paqueta and beat goalkeeper Pietro Terraciano.
West Ham held on through eight minutes of stoppage time to get a first title of any kind since FA Cup glory in 1980 and their second continental title.
Their first was in the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965 with the likes of Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst.
David Moyes’ team finished only 14th in the Premier League but the Conference League crown grants them entry into the next Europa League.
“I dreamed of scoring but to score the winner in the last minute… I thought I was going to cry. I’m just happy, I can’t put it into words,” Bowen said.
“We haven’t had the best season, myself included. I’m over the moon.”
“You make that run 10 times and you might get it once. I had a lot of time but I was confident and when I saw it going in, I didn’t know what to do. This was the biggest game of my career.”
Fiorentina meanwhile lost a second final this season, having been beaten by Inter Milan in the Italian Cup decider.
It was also their third continental final in a row after winning the Cup Winners’ crown in 1961.
It was the second defeat for the Serie A in a continental final this year, with Roma beaten on penalty kicks by Sevilla in last week’s Europa League decider.
And the Italian league could draw a blank as Inter Milan are rated underdogs in Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final against Manchester City.
Biraghi had required treatment after being hit by a plastic cup thrown from the stands when he attempted a corner-kick during the first half.
He suffered a cut on the back of his head but he was able to continue with a bandage after the bleeding was stopped.
Fiorentina who dimonated possession had a goal from Luka Jovic off Christian Kouame’s header against the left post ruled out for offside shortly before half-time.(dpa/NAN)
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