Dimitri Payet produced a virtuoso performance as West Ham fought back to ease into the FA Cup quarter-finals at Championship side Blackburn.<\/p>\n
The home team took the lead when right-back Ben Marshall tucked in a low shot.<\/p>\n
Victor Moses’s equaliser squirmed in and Payet’s free-kick put West Ham ahead before Blackburn were reduced to 10 men by Chris Taylor’s red card.<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Emenike converted twice either side of Cheikhou Kouyate’s dismissal, then Payet added a superb solo goal.<\/p>\n
The Hammers, who last won the FA Cup in 1980, will travel to either Shrewsbury or Manchester United in the last eight.<\/p>\n
It is only the second time in the past 10 seasons that they have reached the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
Can the Hammers end their trophy drought?<\/strong><\/p>\n West Ham have not won a major trophy for 36 years but, in their final season at the Boleyn Ground, are hoping that they can take the FA Cup with them to the Olympic Stadium.<\/p>\n Hammers manager Slaven Bilic has previously said he would rather win the trophy than finish in the Premier League top four, and he showed his intent by picking a near full-strength side against the Championship strugglers.<\/p>\n And, despite that brief early scare after Marshall’s opener, the visitors never looked like becoming the victim of a cup upset.<\/p>\n Backed by over 7,000 travelling supporters, they quickly grew into the game as their superior quality shone through.<\/p>\n The Hammers, who had won just one of their previous 10 away matches, completely controlled the tie after Taylor’s dismissal, with Blackburn constantly stretched by their pace and sharp movement.<\/p>\n “The sending-off was completely needless and changed the course of the game,” said BBC Radio 5 live summariser Mark Lawrenson.<\/p>\n “I’m not saying West Ham wouldn’t have won but they wouldn’t have won so easily.”<\/p>\n France attacking midfielder Payet has been the star of West Ham’s season, impressing plenty of observers since his summer move from Marseille with his vision, poise and technical ability.<\/p>\n The 28-year-old showed again why he is pivotal to the Hammers’ hopes of winning the FA Cup with a masterful performance at Ewood Park.<\/p>\n He put the visitors ahead with a trademark free-kick, arcing the ball over the Rovers wall from almost 30 yards and into the corner.<\/p>\n Not for the first time this season, Payet was not always constantly involved in the game – but it is his ability to burst into life with devastating effect which is so impressive.<\/p>\n In the final stages, his precise throughball teed up Emenike’s second goal before sealing the match with a wonderful solo run and finish.<\/p>\n Payet has now been involved in 17 goals in all competitions for the Hammers since his arrival, scoring nine goals and providing eight assists.<\/p>\n No wonder Hammers boss Bilic, who was warmly embraced by Payet on the touchline after his first goal, was so pleased to tie him down to an improved contract.<\/p>\n “Dimitri is one of the very best, in terms of the players that I’ve played with and coached. He is up there with Luka Modric,” said Bilic afterwards.<\/p>\n Back to Championship survival for Blackburn<\/strong><\/p>\n Blackburn, who are sixth bottom in the Championship, are understandably prioritising safety over a run into the latter stages of the FA Cup, with Lambert insisting he did not want a replay because of the knock-on effect on his side’s schedule.<\/p>\n And he was granted his wish by some dismal defending.<\/p>\n Despite their lowly league position, Rovers have only conceded 27 goals in 30 matches but were the architects of their downfall against the Hammers.<\/p>\n The home defence retreated as Moses ran forward to score the equaliser, with not one Blackburn player attempting to stop the on-loan Chelsea winger.<\/p>\n Steele did not cover himself in glory either, looking understandably upset with himself for not making a seemingly simple save.<\/p>\n Rovers started both halves impressively, playing at a high tempo and trying to push back their Premier League opponents.<\/p>\n But once Taylor received his second yellow card – the first for tripping Payet, who then scored from the free-kick, and another for needlessly clipping Moses – they were totally outclassed as the Hammers ran riot. Dimitri Payet produced a virtuoso performance as West Ham fought back to ease into the FA Cup quarter-finals at Championship side Blackburn. The home team took the lead when right-back Ben Marshall tucked in a low shot. Victor Moses’s equaliser squirmed in and Payet’s free-kick put West Ham ahead before Blackburn were reduced to 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=192119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=192119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=192119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=192119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n–
\nBy: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"