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Tag: west-ham

  • West Ham United vs. Newcastle United (English Premier League 2025-26)

    West Ham United vs. Newcastle United (English Premier League 2025-26)

    I went to three football/soccer matches during my November 2025 trip to London. The 3rd game I went to was between Crystal Palace and AZ Alkmaar in the Conference League, which you can read about here. The match I’ll cover in this post is West Ham vs. Newcastle United at the London Stadium. My previous experience at a West Ham game was their Europa League match vs. Bayer Leverkusen, which you can read about here.

    Background

    As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in London in November of 2025 and looked for matches I could attend while I was there. I was very happy to realize that West Ham would play at home during my trip. Not only that, but they would face Newcastle United, a team that is playing in this year’s Champions League.

    Walking to London Stadium
    Walking to London Stadium

    Teams involved

    You can read about West Ham in a previous blog post but a new piece of information I’ll mention here is that the team was founded as Thames Ironworks in 1985. Then, in 1900, it was reformed under its current name, West Ham United. This explains why the team is known as the “the Irons” and “the Hammers”. The team’s badge also shows this connection by including two crossed rivet hammers.

    London Stadium
    London Stadium

    Newcastle United competes in the Premier League and is based in the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. The club’s origin can be traced back to 1881 but it adopted its current name in 1892. They play their home games at St James’ Park. Newcastle is a team I’ve known since I was little because of Faustino Asprilla’s time there. He is one of the best strikers Colombia has had and, while his time there was short, it had memorable moments. For example, his hat trick in a Newcastle vs. Barcelona Champions League game.

    How I got tickets

    You can read about my experience buying West Ham tickets in a previous post. I followed the same process this time and bought my tickets from West Ham’s ticketing site.

    How I got to the game

    You can read about my experience going to London Stadium from central London in a previous post. The main difference this time is that it was an early afternoon game, so I did not have to worry about missing the last train after the match.

    Also, since I got to the stadium much earlier than last time, I had a chance to stop by the club store. I got a jersey while I was there and checked out the different clothing and souvenirs they had. The store was well organized and it was a great stop to make before entering the stadium. 

    Pre-match warm-up
    Pre-match warm-up

    The game

    West Ham vs. Newcastle
    West Ham vs. Newcastle

    This match came with added pressure for West Ham for a few reasons. First, they had not yet won a home game in the Premier League season and found themselves in the low section of the standings. Second, they had only won one game so far under their new coach, Nuno Espirito Santo. Furthermore, they were playing against a team that had a streak of 3 victories, including a 3-0 victory versus Benfica in the Champions League.

    First half action
    First half action

    The game did not start well for West Ham, as Newcastle scored after just 4 minutes, through a well placed shot from Jacob Murphy. However, West Ham fought back and had good chances to score, with many of those involving their star player Jarrod Bowen. Then, in the 35th minute Lucas Paqueta unleashed a powerful shot from outside the box to score the first goal for West Ham. Right before the end of the first half, there was a fast attack from West Ham that ended in an own goal scored by Sven Botman after a cross from Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

    First half action
    First half action

    The 2nd half was very entertaining and both teams had multiple opportunities to score. There was a West Ham goal in the 67th minute (scored by Freddie Potts) that was disallowed due to an offside. The 3rd West Ham goal finally arrived close to the 97th minute through a shot from Jarrod Bowen that was saved by Nick Pope, and then scored by Tomas Soucek. I was happy to see West Ham win the game and had a great time enjoying the action and taking in the experience.

    Jarrod Bowen dribbling
    Jarrod Bowen dribbling
    London Stadium during the game
    London Stadium during the game
    Second half action
    Second half action
    West Ham's 3rd goal
    West Ham’s 3rd goal

    Leaving the stadium

    Unlike my previous experience at a West Ham game, I did not have to worry about catching the last train back to London. I took my time leaving the stadium, took more pictures, and eventually got back to Stratford station, where I caught an Elizabeth line train back to central London.

    Until next time, London Stadium
    Until next time, London Stadium

    Conclusion

    West Ham is the first English team I saw play in a Europa League match back in 2024 and I was really happy to have the chance to see one of their Premier League games. The match was very entertaining and it was great to see West Ham recover from a poor start to win the game. This time I had a chance to take in more of the game day experience because I got there early and I really enjoyed walking around the stadium and visiting the club store. I will definitely return to London Stadium for more West Ham matches every time I have a chance. If you have the opportunity to go to a West Ham game in the future, try to get there a few hours before the game so you can make the most of the experience.

  • West Ham vs. Bayer Leverkusen (Europa League 2023-24)

    West Ham vs. Bayer Leverkusen (Europa League 2023-24)

    Back in April of 2024 I had the opportunity to go to the London Stadium to see West Ham play Bayer Leverkusen in the 2023-2024 Europa League season.

    Background

    I went to Europe with my family and, whenever I go to Europe, I look for opportunities to see live football games. This time I broke a personal record because, instead of going to my usual one game per trip, or maybe two games per trip, we managed to go to three games (two in England and one in Italy). I’ll write reports for those games too and will add links here soon.

    This was both my first time going to a West Ham game at London Stadium and my first time going to a Europa League game. I have been to many football games in Europe before but this was the first time the game was not part of a national league. Something that made this game extra special was the fact that it featured Bayer Leverkusen. Up to that point they were undefeated in all competitions and were the team to beat in Europe. They were at the top of the Bundesliga and seemed unstoppable, which made the match vs. West Ham even more interesting. It was a really great experience and, best of all, I got to share it with my dad who is also a passionate football fan.

    Inside London Stadium
    London Stadium during the West Ham vs. Bayer Leverkusen Europa League game!

    Teams involved

    West Ham competes in the English Premier League and is based in East London, specifically in Stratford. They play their home games at the London Stadium, an impressive stadium that was built for the 2012 Olympic Games.

    Bayer Leverkusen competes in the German Bundesliga and is based in Leverkusen. They play their home games at the BayArena. 

    Bayer Leverkusen fans at the London Stadium
    Bayer Leverkusen fans at the London Stadium

    How I got tickets

    I checked game calendars during the days I was going to be in London and I realized that West Ham would play Bayer Leverkusen on the last night of my trip, April 18th 2024. I checked the West Ham tickets website and realized that the tickets would not go on general sale for a few more weeks. I added a reminder on my calendar to wake up at 3:45 am US Pacific time so I could try to get tickets (the tickets were going on sale at 4 am my time). I knew that I would need to be ready and move as quickly as possible because the tickets were likely to sell out in minutes. 

    Well, as soon as the sales window opened I logged in and started to look for tickets. I found two that were not too expensive and were at a good location in the stadium. I tried to add them to my shopping cart and boom, I saw a notification that the tickets were no longer available. I tried again with two different tickets in another location and again, the same thing happened. I started to get a little concerned that I could miss out on getting tickets because there were not too many left. I then realized that most of the available tickets were on the East side of the stadium. There were a few on the West side and I decided to give that area a try. Fortunately that worked and I was able to buy two tickets for the game, one for myself and another one for my dad. We got tickets on block 210, row 71.

    How I got to the game

    Getting to the game was a very rushed experience for my dad and I because we arrived from Italy a few hours before the game. To get to the game as quickly as possible, we took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station. We booked those tickets in advance at the Heathrow Express website. Then we took the Elizabeth line from Paddington to Stratford and used our Oyster cards. We ran through the commercial area there so we didn’t get a chance to look around, but it looked like an area worth exploring (lots of restaurants, stores, etc.). We could hear the loud sound of the fans coming from the stadium as we ran there.

    The game

    The game did not have the outcome my dad and I (and most of the stadium) were hoping for, which was a West Ham victory. Nevertheless, it was a very very entertaining match. West Ham had a chance to qualify to the next phase of the Europa League but things didn’t work out, even though they were leading the game at the end of the first half. 

    Both the local and visiting fans were chanting and loud throughout the game and that created an amazing atmosphere at the stadium. We had pretty good seats and had a clear view of the action.

    You can also see highlights of the game below:

    Leaving the stadium

    At the end of the game we followed the crowd towards the exit. It took over an hour to get back to the station because there were so many people (it was a sold out game). The part we had not taken into account was the fact that, given the time the game ended, we had only about 1 hour to catch a train back to Heathrow. We had purchased tickets to return on the Heathrow Express but by the time we got to Stratford there was no way we were going to make it to Paddington Station in time to catch the last train of the day. We asked one of the London Transport employees and she suggested taking the train to a station where we could take a Picaddilly line train back to the airport. We got on a Central line train and got off at Holborn, where we ran to catch what may have been the last train going to the airport that night (there was a group of people running along with us). Since we were staying at Terminal 4, that complicated things a bit because the Picaddilly line does not go there. We got off the train at Hatton Cross station and took a bus to Terminal 4.

    Conclusion

    Overall my dad and I had a great experience at the game. It was very especial for us to not only get a chance to attend a Europa League match, but also one that had so much significance in Europe at the time (Bayer Leverkusen was still unbeaten at that point in the European season and West Ham had a strong team and a good chance to beat them). In the end, West Ham lost, but the game was hard fought and entertaining to watch. Also, getting to the game was very convenient with the Tube and the London Stadium is impressive. The architecture is very different from other stadiums I have been to, the ambience was amazing and the seats we got were great. Leaving the game was a bit stressful because we were not sure if we were going to be able to take public transport back to our hotel at the airport, but it all worked out in the end.

    I am looking forward to going to more West Ham games in the future. If you visit London in the future, definitely check the game schedule in case you have a chance to go to one of their games.