Michail Antonio admits he put in an “embarrassing” performance in West Ham United’s first leg win against AZ Alkmaar, despite scoring the winner.
Antonio poked in his seventh goal in the Europa Conference League this season when he put the Hammers in front at the London Stadium last Thursday, giving the Premier League side a 2-1 lead ahead of the second leg against their Dutch opponents.
The 33-year-old has netted 14 in all competitions this term and leads the Irons scoring chart ahead of Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma, who are on 11 goals each. However, David Moyes revealed he planned to take Antonio off moments before the striker scored the winner, but Antonio admits he struggled throughout the first leg against AZ.
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On The Footballer’s Football Podcast with Callum Wilson, the Newcastle United striker brought up a conversation he had with an unnamed person who said Antonio was “getting ragged around all game, getting dashed about by the centre-backs” against AZ in the first leg.
Antonio responded: “It was the truth. I was getting rag-dolled. It was embarrassing. I was getting rag-dolled all over the pitch, I am going to be honest. But, 90 per cent of them were fouls and the referee was giving me nothing, so if the referee is going to give me nothing there is nothing I can do.
“I was getting rag-dolled about, everyone was moaning at me, the gaffer [Moyes] was saying you’ve got to do better, I’m like ‘mate, the man has run into my back with two hands, there’s nothing I can actually do’. He was like ‘No, you’ve got to deal with it. He ain’t giving you nothing so you’ve got to deal with it’. Okay, no problem.
“It got to the stage where I was getting frustrated, I started sitting on the floor like a child. I was like, ‘ref, you’ve got to sort me out’. But, obviously, I got my goal. I don’t care. I’m not going to lie, if I did get dragged [off] five minutes earlier I’d have probably deserved it.”
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