The heavens opened above the London Stadium – and seemingly inside it too.
West Ham took on Serbian side Backa Topola in their opening Europa League clash of the season on Thursday night. And the players had to battle the conditions as well as their opponents.
Torrential rain came down in east London and videos posted on social media showed the weather causing chaos on the concourses. One clip showed water pouring onto the concourse as fans seemingly took cover.
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The solid ground was left almost flooded with huge puddles forming where fans would normally be queuing for food and drink. Though the weather did not stop the match from kicking off at its scheduled 8pm start.
The Hammers went a goal behind to their opponents with David Moyes' side in the competition having won the European Conference League last season.
Moyes had said: "I think the European competitions have got tougher. So many of the teams who were regular Champions League teams have found themselves in the Europa League, and quite a lot who were in the Europa League have found themselves in the Conference League.
"European football is really, really strong – obviously the Champions League is always the one you want to be recognised for, but I think it’s great that we’ve got the Europa League.
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"We’re thrilled that we’re in it again, two years out of three, and I do believe that the competition has got tougher from when we were in it two years ago.
"To have Liverpool and Brighton from the Premier League – you can see the form that Brighton are in and the history that Liverpool have in European football – and that’s just talking about the British team, never mind those from other countries.
"You’ve also got to remember that we’re waiting on whoever finishes third in their Champions League group to drop back into this competition too. So to talk about who could be favourites at this stage is not really worthwhile."
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