West Ham United striker Diafra Sakho has expressed his delight at the Hammers’ first win of the season.
The Senegalese, who scored a brace in his club’s 3-0 first leg win over Lusitans in the Europa League first round qualifier last night, emphasised the importance of winning the first game of the season.
"It's important to win the first game at home. Every fan came to see the team play, and the young players did well for us”, he said to West Ham’s official website.
The striker was pleased with his two goal haul, which takes him one step closer to his target of 20 goals in the season.
"Two down, now 18 more for the 20!"
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However, Sakho refused to get carried away by the win and feels the second leg in Andorra is equally important if the Hammers are to make it through to the group stage of the competition.
"It's difficult to play against a team who every time play back, and so it was important for me to score the first goal.
"Every player is happy with the result, but we're not finished because we also need to win next Thursday.
"We need to stay focused and go away to win at Lusitans.
"All the qualifying rounds are important – we want to have six games in this competition before the league starts, and now we have five more to win”, he added.
West Ham head to Andorra for the second leg of the tie which is scheduled for next Thursday. Should they go through the first qualifying round next week, the Hammers will be back in Europe for the second qualifying round a week later.
All the qualifying rounds of the Europa League will be over by the time the new Premier League season commences on the 8th of August.
