West Ham prevailed on a momentous occasion on Wednesday night, with Jarrod Bowen’s late winner enough to edge past Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League final. A staggering run to the semi-final of the Europa League last season was agonisingly cut short just before the final hurdle, so we are delving deeper into the history of the Hammers on the continent, and posing the question, when did West Ham last play in a European final before Wednesday’s triumph.
When Did West Ham Last Play in a European Final?
The claret and blue of the Hammers have flooded the cobbled streets of Prague this week, in the hope of seeing their side lift silverware for the first time since the 1980s.
Luckily for the travelling faithful, they saw Declan Rice become the first club captain to lead West Ham to a European trophy in nearly 60 years.
Historically, the Hammers have a commendable record in Europe having reached two separate finals in the mid 1960’s and 70’s.
The first came in 1965, where an all-English line-up featuring England World Cup here Geoff Hurst and captain Bobby Moore swept aside 1860 Munich at Wembley, in the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
11 years later, they would enjoy a spectacular run to the final once more, where a side featuring Frank Lampard sr, Billy Bonds and Trevor Brooking finished eventual runners-up, following a 4-2 defeat against Anderlecht.
They were also one of three successful teams in the Intertoto Cup in 1999, although this was effectively a summer tournament to determine the qualifiers for the UEFA Cup.
West Ham in Europe
- European Cup Winners’ Cup – Champions (1965) | Runners Up (1976)
What Was the World Like The Last Time West Ham Featured in a European Final?
- Apple is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
- Enterprise, NASA’s first ever space shuttle, is unveiled four months after West Ham’s defeat.
- First commercial Concorde flights take off in January of the same year.
- First laser printer introduced by IBM.
- The great drought of 1976, the driest summer for 350 years at the time in the UK, was well underway by the time West Ham lined up in the final.
- The average house price in the UK was around £10,200.
- McDonald’s had only been in the UK for two years.
- A pint of beer would have set you back around 72p.
- Only half of the population owned a landline.
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